


baby, you don't know what it's like

by peerpressure



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Office, M/M, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-23
Updated: 2014-03-23
Packaged: 2018-01-16 16:28:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 31,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1354048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peerpressure/pseuds/peerpressure
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry tries really, really hard to only see Niall as a friend.</p>
<p>It’s not working very well.</p>
<p>Because Niall is simply amazing and Harry is so stunned that he’s even allowed in his presence. And also because he wants to suck his dick. Just a little. But he also wants to cuddle him and maybe share food and fight for blankets and press cold feet against each other and shampoo each other’s hair.</p>
<p>Harry just wants to be with Niall.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(In which Louis is a good friend, Liam is kind, Zayn is always stressed, Niall is the new guy and Harry falls in love)</p>
            </blockquote>





	baby, you don't know what it's like

**Author's Note:**

> find me at horansheroes.tumblr.com

Harry’s set the alarm on his phone to ring at precisely 6.45 every morning. It’s Marimba. He hates it and that’s why he uses it. He allows himself to snooze for 9 minutes before he bravely drags his tired body to his bathroom. Because of his snoozing he always has to hurry a bit in the shower, but setting the alarm to ring earlier is not an option. He doesn’t get enough sleep as it is. So he’s usually quite stressed out in the showers because of his tight schedule and sometimes he forgets to rinse his hair. Those days are the days he wishes to go back to sleep the most.

After his shower, he shaves, puts on a generous amount of deodorant and styles his hair. This basically means that he flips it to the side, drags his hand through it and shoves it up on his forehead in some quiff-looking thing. He figures he could look more of an idiot, so it’s fine. After getting his hair done, he puts on his suit and eats cereal for breakfast alone in his small kitchen. When he’s done he brushes his teeth, puts on his black tie and dress shoes and grabs his briefcase. The briefcase should probably be filled with important papers and whatnot, but in Harry’s it’s mostly silly drawings, a comic book, a brownish banana and probably far too many Snickers wrappers. He’s out of the door at exactly 7.30 and has then 10 minutes to walk to the nearest bus stop. If the bus is on time, he manages to catch the 7.54 tube and then he walks in to the office at precisely 8.15 when he starts for the day. Harry likes to be on time.

It’s a big office with 5 floors. Harry works on the third floor (the marketing department) and has learnt to only use the left lift, because the number 3 button in the right has got a suspicious looking yellow spot that he’d rather not touch. Other than that, it’s a nice enough place to work at. He’s got his own cubicle with a big, plastic plant in the corner and an ergonomic swivel chair and he’s learnt how to shut out the noises coming from Louis’ cubicle a few cubicles away.

Louis is one of his colleagues. Also his best friend since uni and the one who recommended Harry to their boss, Mr. Finnegan. Both Louis and Harry studied marketing at uni and had several classes together, so it was only natural that they remembered each other’s faces. It started with a casual nod in the hallway that turned in to a ‘hello’ and suddenly Harry always saved a seat for the always late Louis in class. It didn’t take long for them to realise that their dorms were in the same hallway and before Harry had time to even react, Louis had nestled himself into both Harry’s dorm room and his life. Harry didn’t really mind though because Louis was a much more easy going person and made a lot of friends he introduced Harry to. Harry wouldn’t call himself antisocial but he’s nowhere near as social as Louis and would probably have spent his uni years all by himself if this hadn’t happened. Louis also brought him to a lot of parties and is probably the only reason to why Harry even had a remotely good uni experience. Harry owes him a lot.

This doesn’t however change the fact that he is an annoying little piece of shit. Louis manages to not only be 20 minutes late for work every day, he also manages to make it everyone’s business when he arrives by shouting hello’s to everyone he knows (which is everyone). His tie is always loose around his neck and Harry knows that Louis can dress how ever the fuck he wants but it still annoys him. He does however always bring Harry an extra large coffee from the Starbucks down the street so Harry is willing to accept his flaws.

Today starts as a normal day, and it stays normal until exactly 11.23 am. Before that, Harry has managed to make three very important calls, has sent seven emails about stuff he doesn’t actually care about and written half of that report Mr. Finnegan wants on his desk by the end of next week. Zayn popped by his cubicle around 10 with a panicked expression, his black hair all tousled.

Zayn is Mr. Finnegan’s secretary. He’s always seen running around with papers and important looking files, always looking like he’s about to pass out from the stress. No one’s actually sure about what he’s doing, but Harry has a feeling that what ever it is, it’s more important than what he himself is doing. Actually, Harry’s not a _hundred_ percent sure he even knows what _he’s_ doing. Well, it’s got something to do with marketing, that much he’s sure of, but the rest is a little blurry around he edges.

Anyway, Zayn stared at him with wide, panicked eyes and asked him, slightly out of breath if he had seen the file Collins was supposed to turn in yesterday. Harry, having befriended the secretary through Louis (Louis had immediately taken liking to Zayn when he started a year ago and always made an effort to invite him along when they were going to the pub), grabbed him by the elbow and told him to just fucking breathe for a second. When Zayn did so, Harry told him that he’d seen the file on Lester’s desk. He had barely finished the sentence before Zayn was running off again, most likely to Lester’s cubicle.

And this was the most exciting thing that happened to Harry before 11.23. What happens when the clock strikes 11.23 is that Louis’ head pops up from behind the partition that divides his cubicle from the general walking area. He also makes a smacking noise with his lips and Harry, who is skimming through a report, almost jumps out of his swivel chair in surprise.

”What the actual hell, Louis?!” he half shouts, half whispers, trying to look as pissed off as possible. Louis doesn’t seem affected.

”Hi” he grins down at him and rests his chin on the partition. ”Guess what?”

Harry sighs because he’s never been able to guess what Louis is talking about when he says ”guess what?”. So he patiently waits for Louis to continue. He’s not disappointed.

”Our printer is out of ink so I had to use the one on the fifth floor to print out the form for the new clients. I couldn’t wait until tomorrow, you know what Finnegan’s like about these things. And I was just standing there, because their printer is a lot more complicated than the one on our floor, you can’t imagine how many buttons it’s got! It’s even got one of those touch screens, why doesn’t our printer have that? It’s so outdated, god. Anyway, like I said, I was just standing there, completely clueless about what button to press when this lad comes in, right?”

At this point, Harry has lost his focus a little because Louis’ stories always turn out like this. And people say Harry’s the one who can’t tell a story like a normal human being.

”It turns out he’s new here, only started working a few weeks ago! He didn’t know how the printer worked either but we figured it out eventually, you know how good I am at teamwork. Hey, are you even listening?”

Harry looks up from his phone and Flappy Bird to meet Louis’ eye with an innocent face.

”Of course, always” he says and blows him a kiss. Louis sighs.

”Anyway, his name’s Niall and he’s really nice so I invited him to have lunch with us today. We’re meeting him by the entrance at noon” he says and disappears.

”Wait, what?!” Harry shouts after him, but Louis has already skipped away and someone shush’s him so he leans back in his chair. He sighs. Trust Louis to befriend everyone in the whole fucking building and force them all onto Harry.

At exactly 12 o’clock when their hour long lunch break starts, Harry rises from his chair and straightens his back. It cracks slightly and he thinks he should really get another job. Preferably one where he’s not hunched in front of a computer all day. His posture is enough bad as it is, he’s going to look like fucking Quasimodo if it continues like this.

He grabs his suit jacket from the coat hanger and feels the pockets for his wallet. When he’s sure it’s there, he walks over to Louis’ cubicle and knocks three times on the partition to get his friend’s attention. Louis turns his head towards him with a big smile and stands up in a swift motion. He grabs his own jacket and tugs it on as he starts to walk towards the lift. He slaps Harry’s bum in his passing.

”Let’s go, sunshine!”

They step out of the lift on the ground floor and Louis turns his head to look for this Niall guy. His face lights up and Harry follows his gaze. By the glass doors to the entrance stands a young man looking to be around their age. He’s got his hands shoved down in the pockets of his black trousers. His hair is clearly bleached blond, because Harry can see brownish roots in the mess of hair on his head. Louis grabs his hand and points to Niall, as if Harry hadn’t already seen him, and starts to drag him over there.

Up close, Harry can see how Niall’s suit is perfectly cut over the shoulders and his blond hair is starting to curl slightly around his ears. He’s got these blue, innocent eyes and a small smile on his lips and Harry’s taken aback by how they curve. He’s slightly taller so Niall raises his head a bit to properly look him in the eyes as he stretches out his right hand.

”Hi, ’m Niall Horan” he says and his voice instantly makes a lump form in Harry’s throat. The kid’s bloody _Irish_.

”Harry Styles” he says and takes Niall’s offered hand and it’s _soft_ and _warm_ and Niall’s smile widens and Harry knows, he just fucking _knows_ , that he’s gone for.

\---

Niall talks a lot, Harry notices. He smiles a lot and his eyes curiously wander around the small Chinese place Louis decided on, and he talks about everything he sees. Harry can’t really decide if it’s because he just likes to hear his own voice or if it’s because he just like to communicate with people. He figures he doesn’t mind, either way.

The walk to the Chinese restaurant only took 7 minutes and Louis was talking about his current report the whole way. Harry didn’t mind this a bit, he didn’t really trust his own voice at the moment, anyway. Because Niall was walking in the middle and his left hand was so close to Harry’s and they had only met a few minutes ago but Harry could hardly breathe. And it was fucking scary.

They sit down in a the only free booth left, Louis and Niall on one end opposite Harry. Louis immediately dives into his menu but Niall is a little more cautious and slowly flips through the pages, scanning them carefully. He looks fucking divine in the dim light and it’s fucking distracting. Harry tries not to stare and manages to maintain his focus on the menu long enough to decide on chicken skewers with peanut sauce.

Louis slams his menu on the table and declares that he’ll have the fried duck before he turns to Niall to ask what he’s having. Harry has to remind himself that Louis is an actual 26 year old. Niall clears his throat a little before revealing that he’s going for the chicken noodles. Louis nods appreciatively and waves for the waiter.

When they’ve ordered, Louis commences with the Spanish Inquisition. He casually rests his forearms on the wooden table and turns his head to Niall. Harry only sighs, Louis does this with everyone. He himself had to suffer it far more worse than everyone else though, because Louis wanted to know if he was ”best friend material”. It was during a college party and Harry had apparently passed the test. So that’s something to write on his resume.

”So, what made you go into economics?”

The fifth floor in the office building is where the people dealing with the company’s economics house. Just like on the third floor where Harry and Louis sit, all the marketing people work. The fourth floor is where the most important people have their offices (they don’t have to deal with small cubicles, they get rooms with actual _doors_ and Harry is only a little jealous) and the first two floors is for production. Now, if someone was to ask Harry what the company he works for actually _produces_ \- what he is in fact marketing for - he wouldn’t be able to answer. And he doubts not many people in the company would. It’s a scary world they’re living in, that’s for sure.

”I didn’t want to do this, originally” Niall says with afterthought.

”What did you want to do, then? Why didn’t you?”

Niall’s cheek turns light pink. ”I wanted to be a footballer, but I’ve got a bad knee so even if I’d been good enough I would’ve been screwed. Other than that I wanted to be a musician but” he shrugs his shoulders ”that obviously hasn’t happened. But I was quite good at maths in school so this seemed logical.”

Louis nods. ”We’re in the same boat, mate. Neither me or Curly here wanted to work for his ugly corporation.”

”Yeah, I wanted to be a film director, but apparently it’s hard to get in to a good school to do that. This was the second best thing” Harry surprises himself by saying. He didn’t know he could actually form sentences with the blond man in front of him.

”What about you then, Louis?” Niall asks.

”Nah, I wanted to start my own company. But if I had, I wouldn’t have met this lovely lad here” he leans over the table to ruffle Harry’s curls.

Niall giggles quietly.

He actually fucking giggles and Harry thinks he might have a heart attack.

Louis continues to talk about something, probably music related since Niall was into it, but Harry is too busy trying not to stare at Niall to be able to focus at what he’s saying. He doesn’t know how well he’s succeeding, because sometimes when he’s stubbornly looking down at the table, he can feel someone’s gaze burning in his forehead.

Thankfully, it doesn’t take long for their food to arrive and Harry is grateful to have something to occupy himself with. Niall picks up a piece of broccoli from his plate and brings it to his mouth. Harry tries very hard not to think about how wonderful Niall’s delightful, pink lips would feel against his own. Or maybe on his cock. (Either one is good, really.) God, he’s pathetic.

In an attempt to diverse his attention, Harry tries to pick up a small lump of rice with his chopsticks and pretends like he actually knows what he’s doing. But it turns out that also Niall struggles and can’t really twirl his noodles around his own chopsticks. He meets Harry’s eye and smiles a little as a light blush spreads on his cheeks.

Harry is starting to believe that there might be a God, after all.

Or a devil, for that matter, because if Niall doesn’t stop trying to suck up those noodles soon, the situation that is slowly starting to form in his trousers is going to be out of control.

After they’ve finished their meals (and Harry’s managed to think enough about his gran’s panties to scar him for a lifetime) Harry offers to pay for all three of them. Louis accepts this and leans back while resting his hands on top of his head, because they pay things for each other all the time so it’ll be even at some point. Niall, however, starts to protest. Harry cuts off his arguments with a wave of his hand.

”Let me do this” he says and looks at him and he’s gorgeousgorgueosgourgeous. Niall holds his gaze for a moment before he swallows and nods. Harry pays and they leave, rushing a bit to make it back to the office on time. Louis stage whispers to Niall that time is a very important thing to Harry and chuckles, but Niall only smiles at Harry. Harry manages to smile back, he thinks.

Back at the office, Harry sits down to continue writing on that report and tries not to think of a certain someone. This turns out to be harder than expected, because Harry’s thoughts are constantly drifting away to deep blue eyes, blond hair and slender fingers. On the way back to the office, the wind had riffled Niall’s hair and their hands accidentally brushed once. So yeah, Harry can’t seem to focus on his work at all. Niall is everywhere in his head and it’s making him restless. He considers for a moment if he should go and have a quick wank in the loo to be able to relax and focus again but he quickly dismisses the thought. Because firstly, he knows from experience that the toilets are nowhere near sound proof and secondly, he’s not a fucking hormonal teenager anymore. He should be fucking able to do his work despite thinking of attractive young men, thank you very much.

So he spends the rest of his workday playing Flappy Bird on his phone (he beats his record twice and doesn’t even get too murderous) and tries to make it look like he’s actually doing what he’s supposed to when someone walks by.

He actually manages to survive the rest of the day and when the clock strikes 4.30, he’s the first one out of the doors. Outside, he takes a couple of deep breaths in the hope that fresh air will help clear his mind (it doesn’t). And his mind if so full of NiallNiallNiall that he accidentally forgets to stop by the nearest Tesco’s on his way home to buy milk.

The first thing he does when he’s unlocked his front door with shaky fingers is to toe his shoes off and undo his tie on the way to his bedroom with nothing but NiallNiallNiall filling his mind. He’s barely able to unzip his trousers and fuck, how is this even happening?

He comes fast, but a release was all he needed. Panting on his bed, with his trousers and pants down halfway on his thighs, he wipes his right hand on the sheets and tries not to cringe at how much of a horny teenager he feels like. He hasn’t dried his hand on the sheets in a very long time, not since he learned to always keep a box of tissues by the bed. (He did the laundry just recently, but he’ll just have to do it again.) He waits until his breathing has settled and then some more before he can sit up. He tucks himself back inside his boxers and strip out of his trousers completely.

He stands in front of his mirror and sighs as he presses the heels of his palms to his eyes and rubs hard. He takes a deep breath and lets his arms fall to his sides, stares at himself and telling his reflection to get a grip on himself. This is absurd - he’s met Niall exactly once, why is he acting so fucking _silly_? Yes, Niall somehow manages to look like a sex god and an angel at the same time, and if that’s not a major turn on, nothing is. And yes, his hands and his smile and his eyes and his bleached hair and rosy cheeks and his fucking _voice_ \- they’re all amazing. But Harry doesn’t know him, Niall could be a fucking idiot for all that he knows. And still, here he is, his breath taken away by someone he just met.

”Keep it together, Styles” he tells his reflection sternly. He takes off the rest of his clothes like he always does, because that fucking suit is uncomfortable as hell.

After he’s changed in to a pair of comfortable sweatpants and a loose t-shirt and cleaned himself up, he walks into his kitchen, trying not to think about how silent his flat is. He almost got a cat once to keep him company, but he figured that it would take him another step towards becoming the crazy cat lady from Simpson’s, so he decided that he’d rather be alone. The silence is not always that bad, it’s mostly when he wishes he had some company.

He decides on pasta with pesto and mushrooms for dinner and sets the table for one as the pasta is boiling on the stove. When he eats his dinner, his mind wanders away to how fucking delicious Niall’s mouth looked like when he struggled with his noodles during lunch. He drops his fork on the plate in frustration, covers his face in his hands and lets out a pathetic whine.

Harry wonders how the fuck this is his life.

\---

”You’re weird today” says Louis when he arrives to work with a coffee in his hand. Harry takes the cup and mumbles a quiet ”thanks” before taking a careful sip. It burns his tongue. He locks gaze with his best friend and puts on a small smile, hoping that Louis won’t notice anything. Louis notices fucking _everything_. Harry hasn’t been able to keep a single secret since they met.

”And why’s that?” he asks, even though he knows the answer. Louis points to Harry’s coat hanger, where his wet suit coat is hanging.

”It’s raining and you obviously forgot you umbrella at home. You never forget your umbrella.” _Oh, is he Sherlock fucking Holmes now?_

Harry shrugs. ”Everyone forgets something once in a while, yeah?”

Louis nods. ”True. But you’ve also got un matching socks today and I haven’t seen you like that since that wicked party in uni at Rebecca’s. You remember that?” he smirks.

A shiver runs down Harry’s spine because yes, he remembers that. Well, he doesn’t actually remember, but he remember the morning after. Somehow he got home wearing a complete different outfit than the one he left his dorm room in and he also had an enormous dragon tattoo on his back (the tattoo turned out to be temporary, but before he realised that, he’d had a minor mental breakdown in his bathroom and Louis had pissed himself laughing). Harry already had some tattoos at the time, but a dragon one is not what he’d prefer.

”Yes, I remember that, thank you” Harry says and punches Louis in the arm. ”But so what, I had an off morning.”

Louis must see something in his gaze, because his eyes soften and when he speaks, his voice is low and caring.

”Are you okay?”

Harry sighs, because Louis may be an annoying piece of shit, but he is also a caring piece of shit.

”Yeah, I’m alright” he half lies, because he’s not sure if constantly thinking about the same pair of eyes is healthy for anyone (especially the eyes of someone you only just met).

”You know you can talk to me about anything, right?” Louis asks, and seriously, this situation is turning in to a scene from a really bad American rom com. They’ll probably end up crying, both of them. Harry can’t handle those situations.

So Harry says: ”I know, thanks Lou.” (He really means this, because Louis is after all his best friend.) ”But I’d really appreciate it if you’d bugger off and leave me alone now.”

Louis chuckles and turns around to leave before he smacks his bum and winks at Harry.

”Want a nice view of my arse, I take it?”

Harry nearly throws his stapler at him when he walks away laughing. When he’s gone, Harry realises that he forgot to ask if Niall is eating with them today or not, and then he has a small anxiety attack. Then he gets angry with himself. He can’t deal with his fucking life anymore, this is getting seriously out of hand.

After that he starts to write some more on that report he didn’t finish yesterday because he can’t let Niall ruin his work (too) for him. Louis is right, he is weird today. (He will never say that to his face, though.) He accidentally put soap in his hair during his shower (it got in his eyes too and he thought he was going blind for a second, it was a horrible moment), started looking for a spoon for his cereals in the fridge and thought he had misplaced his keys because he couldn’t find them in their usual fucking place.

He is a fucking _mess_.

And it’s all because of Niall. It’s been one fucking day and he’s already nestled himself deep inside Harry’s brain. Harry doesn’t want to think about how much worse it might get if this is just the beginning.

Somehow, he still manages to keep himself busy with work and completes the report before he starts to review one of the files from the big pile of them on his desks. (He doesn’t know how half of those files got here, he’s not even sure it’s his responsibility to review them all.) (He strongly suspects that Louis is responsible for at least half of them finding their way to his desk.) But as the day goes on and the clock is starting to near 12 o’clock, he’s getting more and more anxious. Is he and Louis going to eat with Niall today again? Because if that’s the case, he needs to prepare mentally. And stuff. Fuck, he doesn’t know. But he needs to know if he’s going to eat with Niall today as well. By 11.30, he can’t control himself anymore so he almost storms off to Louis’ cubicle. He has to fucking know.

He is aware that he probably looks a bit mental since he more or less rushed there, so he tries to calm himself down and plasters on a neutral face as he clears his throat to to announce his arrival. Louis spins around in his chair and when he sees who’s there, a little crease forms between his eye brows. He glances at the little clock on his computer screen before he turns to Harry again.

”Harry? It’s half an hour before we go on lunch. Are you sure you’re okay?”

”What? Yeah, yeah, I know” Harry says with a wave of his hand. ”It just popped into my mind, you know,” he scratches the back of his head and tries to look nonchalant ”that I don’t know if that Niall guy is going to eat with us again?” He makes it sound like a question and Harry internally cringes. Fucking hell, he is a embarrassment to the human race.

Louis still looks confused. ”And that couldn’t wait half an hour?”

Harry shrugs. Louis looks a bit thoughtful.

”I don’t know, I didn’t think of it, haven’t asked him about it.”

Harry doesn’t know if he’s relieved or disappointed.

And Louis of course, being his best friend and all, notices.

”Why d’you wonder?” he asks suspiciously, leans forward in his chair and squints his eyes. Harry tries not to squirm under his steady gaze. Suddenly, Louis’ face lights up and he claps his hands together before pointing at Harry with a big grin on his face.

”I knew it! I fucking knew it!”

_Fuck._

”I thought I might’ve mistaken myself yesterday, how you looked at him, but it totally explains how weird you’re acting today” he laughs.

Harry is certain every drop of blood in his body has rushed to his head. He would be totally fine with dying right now. More than fine, actually. He would like it to have already happened, preferably two minutes ago.

Louis rises from his chair to wrap his arms around Harry’s shoulders, still chuckling.

”Hey mate, I understand, he’s really fit, isn’t he?” he says and leans his head backwards so he can get a proper look at Harry. Harry just nods and Louis studies his face for a few seconds.

”Jesus Harry, you only met him yesterday and you’re already deep in the shit, aren’t you?” Harry is both thankful and distraught over the fact that Louis can read him so well.

Louis unwraps his arms and pats Harry’s shoulder with his hand before returning to his chair. He leans back, folds his hands in his lap and stretches out his legs. His feet are crossed at the ankles and he looks up at Harry with a content expression. Too content. Harry begins to worry. He recognises that face, it the Louis’-got-a-plan-face.

”This is great, Harry. What an opportunity.” He’s quiet for a few seconds, most likely plotting how he’s going to get Harry and Niall together, if Harry knows him right.

”Here’s what we’re going to do, right? You are going to take the lift up to the fifth floor and ask him to go to lunch with us today. Here,” he reaches for a file on his desks and hands it to Harry ”this got to me by accident and I haven’t delivered it to a guy on the fifth floor yet, you can use it as a excuse for being there.” Fucking _hell_ , Louis really knows him.

”And then, during lunch, we’re going to find out if he’s into dick or not.”

Harry hits him over the head with the file.

\---

Harry doesn’t know why he’s so fucking nervous. He’s talked to boys before, he knows how to do it, for fuck’s sake. It’s nothing to worry about. And yet, he’s walking towards the lifts with the folder Louis gave him clutched tightly to his chest, his hands all sweaty. He can’t help but notice how his fingers are shaking when he reaches out to press the ’up’ button on the wall. It’s ridiculous, really. He’s acting like a teenager. And he can’t even fucking help it.

When he’s pressed the button, he immediately regrets his decision and turns around to walk back to his cubicle, because fuck, he can’t do this. He can’t, it’s impossible. But as he turns around, he sees Louis standing a few metres away from him with his arms crossed over his chest. He’s trying very hard to hold a stern face, but Harry can se the corner of his mouth twitching. Harry really should have seen this coming, after all these years of knowing him.

”You came longer than I expected, congrats” Louis says and his voice is strained, obviously holding back a laugh. ”Now take that lift up to the man of your dreams.”

”He’s not the man of my dr-” Harry starts to defend himself, but then the lift comes and suddenly Louis’ hands are on his shoulders and pushing him into the small, empty space. He presses the number five button and quickly moves to stand outside the lift with a shit eating grin on his face. God, Harry hates him so much.

”I’ve been waiting since uni for you to find someone you like, we’re not going to fuck this up” he says and Harry’s heart grows a little when Louis says ”we”, because after all he’s got a best friend he can always count on. Louis will always stand by his side. And then the little fucker waves at him, still with that stupid grin as the doors close.

Harry thinks he might throw up.

He doesn’t, though, and then the doors open again, this time on floor number five. Harry’s only been to the fifth floor once, and that was on his first day when Mr. Finnegan’s last secretary showed him around the office. That was almost two years ago, so the fifth floor might as well be a completely new world to him.

He walks slowly, more cautiously than usual, doesn’t want to disturb anyone. It doesn’t look very much different from the third floor, except there are a lot more plastic plants scattered around the floor and less cubicles. He sees a small room across the floor and can make out the shape of an enormous printer and _Jesus_ , Louis wasn’t exaggerating. That shit looks beyond complicated.

Harry lets his gaze wander around the open space, trying to get a look of a mop of blond hair somewhere. But one of the bad things with cubicles though is that Harry can’t see where Niall’s sitting. And he doesn’t really want to knock on every fucking cubicle to find him, that shit’s just not happening. So he stands a bit awkwardly by the wall, pretending to read in the file to make it seem like he’s not completely lost. The thing is, the file is actually quite interesting, so he finds himself completely forgetting about his surroundings and why he’s even there in the first place.

But suddenly a hand touches his bicep and it feels like electricity is buzzing through his whole body. It’s the good kind of electricity and Harry can almost feel his heart stopping for a second. His head snaps up and he’s met with a pair of deep blue eyes.

Niall smiles at him and lets go of his arm. Harry immediately feels impossibly cold.

”Hey Harry, what’re you doing up here?” Niall asks and it gets a little harder to breathe. He’s so close, so fucking _close_ and Harry can almost feel the heat radiating from his body.

”Um” he says ”This file accidentally got to our floor.” He hands Niall the file who accepts it, still with a smile on his lips. Their fingertips brush and Harry feels like throwing up again. What the fuck is happening? Why is he reacting like this?

Niall flips open the file and scans through the pages quickly.

”Yeah” he says thoughtfully ”It looks like this belongs to...” His voice trails off and he turns to scan around the floor. He snaps his fingers. ”Colin! I think.” He turns to Harry again. ”I’m not really good with names” he says and smiles sheepishly.

_But he remembered Harry’s._

Harry is not able to respond, because his heart is beating furiously behind his ribs and it feels like he’s going to explode. He didn’t use to believe in love at first sight or whatever, but what else could this be? Well, it’s obviously fucking ridiculous, but still.

Niall claps his hands together in an awkward gesture and looks a bit uncomfortable. (It’s most likely because Harry’s not talking and is just staring at him like an idiot but he can’t help it, it feels like he’s in trance.)

”Um, I should probably leave this to him” Niall says slowly and starts to walk away backwards with an uncertain smile. And suddenly it’s like Harry can breathe again. He can’t let this opportunity slip through his fingers.

”Wait!” he says, almost shouts really and it’s fucking embarrassing but he doesn’t want to think about it right now, can’t think of it. His mind is full of Niall.

”Would you like to come out for lunch with me and Louis today?” He knows he sounds rushed and wants to hit himself in the head. Preferably with a chair. Or maybe an axe. Yeah, an axe would probably have the desired affect.

Niall’s smile widens and he stops mid-step. God, his smile is so beautiful.

”I’d really like that, but I can’t today. Maybe tomorrow?”

Harry’s heart stops. This is it. Niall’s probably lying, probably doesn’t like him. He’s screwed up, he’s too awkward. He might as well die. That axe would be very welcomed right now.

”We’re not going out for lunch tomorrow” he says with a lump forming in his throat. This is actually true, he and Louis bring their own lunch on Friday’s so they can spend more money when they go out to the pub after work. _The pub!_

”But we’re going to the pub after work, if you want to come” he suggests, terrified of the too hopeful light in his chest.

But Niall’s face lights up even more. Harry is not sure that was even possible.

”Yeah!” Niall says and his eyes are glittering. ”I’d love to!”

Harry’s heart is possibly melting.

”Great!” he says and maybe he sounds a bit too happy for the occasion but he can’t help it.

Niall lets out a quiet chuckle.

”I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, then?”

Harry nods, he doesn’t trust his voice. Niall chuckles again and turns around completely this time and walks away, most likely to return the file to that Liam guy. Harry doesn’t stay around to watch him, he’s more or less rushing to the lifts (once in the lift, he realises that he accidentally took the wrong one, and has to use his elbow to press the button to his floor). His heart is racing and he’s almost jumping up and down. The adrenalin is pumping through his veins.

Back on the marketing floor, he half rushes straight to Louis’ cubicle because he knows his friend will be absolutely pissed at him if he didn’t. Louis turns around with a hopeful smile the minute he walks into his cubicle. Harry tells him, slightly breathless, the news which has Louis even more excited than before.

”This is fantastic! We’ll get him drunk and Zayn can come too to make it less awkward because face it Harry, you’re hopeless, and then we’ll leave you two alone once he’s drunk enough to not notice your uncomfortable stares and -” Harry cuts him off by putting his hand over Louis’ mouth.

”Shut up, will you?”

Louis licks the inside of his palm in response.

\---

The rest of the day floats by without any other major happenings. Dan Collins fell out of his chair at 14.17 because he fell asleep (Harry knows this because their cubicles are next to each other and he heard loud snoring before the sound of a body hitting the floor reached him). Then Harry ran out of Tip-Ex and had to go on a quest in the storage room for more. It truly was an exciting day.

Lunch was excruciating. He and Louis went out for sushi (which in itself was nice, Harry can’t complain about that) and Louis was asking him about every little detail about his opinions/feelings/fucking whatever about Niall. Then he started giving stupid advice, as always. And as always, he sucked. Harry fucking knew this would happen. Louis knows him better than Harry knows himself, of course he would figure out about Niall soon. But Harry was hoping that maybe it would take a little longer before his friend noticed this whole Niall-thing. But oh, how naive of him. Louis notices everything.

It would at least be less embarrassing if he hadn’t only met the guy once. Then it would be understandable if he fell for the lad, because he would have gotten to know him a bit. Like a _normal_ fucking person. But of course, he had to go fancy a guy he had met for a fucking hour and then act like a fucking lunatic.

Harry wants to fucking strangle himself.

On the tube home he puts his headphones in and tries to drown the whole fucking world in music and gives an old woman a death glare when she tries to speak to him. He almost feels bad about it. He buys that milk he forgot about yesterday and decides that he can’t bother to make dinner tonight. So he calls Domino’s when he comes home and orders a large pepperoni pizza. Because he fucking deserves it. Later, when he sits down to eat the newly delivered food along with some Coke, he replays the conversation he had with Louis during lunch in his head.

”I mean, he’s really fit, I can see why you’re so smitten by him” Louis said and dipped his sushi piece in soy sauce. ”But,” he took a bite of it and continued to talk as he chewed like a fucking caveman ”in case you weren’t aware of it, you’ve met the guy one time.” He pointed his chopsticks with the half eaten sushi at Harry to make his point.

”Yeah, I think I’m fucking aware, Lou” Harry had said. Then he accidentally took too much wasabi on his sushi piece. He started spluttering and his eyes were tearing up. Louis handed him his glass of water with a sigh and a roll of his eyes.

”You know this probably means that you’re soul mates or something, right?”

”Quit talking rubbish, mate” Harry said angrily when he’d put out the fire in his mouth, his eyes still teary and red. He breathed heavily.

”Well, it’s either that, or because you haven’t gotten any in like, eighty years or something. Seriously, when was the last time you brought a guy home?”

Harry didn’t answer that.

”That long, huh?” Louis said with a smirk. Harry threw a piece of salmon at his head and then looked at his wrist watch.

”Finish up, we’ve gotta head back soon.”

This drew out yet another sigh from his friend.

”Smooth diversion, Harry. You get an A+ for effort.”

Harry glared at him.

”You’re a dick.”

Louis shrugged his shoulders. ”Can’t deny that” he said and took a sip of his water. ”But I seriously think you should try to get laid, maybe this little thing with Niall will pass once you stop living like a monk.”

Harry thinks about this in his lounge, eating pizza in front of a rerun of America’s Next Top Model. Looks down at the greasy slice in his hand and sighs. Why would anyone want to shag him? Louis doesn’t seem to understand - he’s fit and quirky, the girls love him. Harry on the other hand... Both girls and boys notice him at first, he’s heard that his curls are a real eye catcher. But when they realise how awkward and lame he is, they always turn to someone else. (He doesn’t care about the girls, but it’s always nice to be appreciated, no matter the gender, he reasons.) It’s not that he can’t talk to people, it’s just his... personality. He’s not exactly sure exactly what it is about his personality, but there is something. Why else would people always try their luck somewhere else?

He knows this little thing he has developed for Niall is ridiculous. Mostly because of the obvious reason that he’s met him twice now (fucking _hooray_ ). But also because even if they had known each other for some time... Why would Niall like him back? Of course, the chances are that he might swing in Harry’s way, but even then, why would he go for him? There are so many other guys out there. Guys who aren’t awkward and pathetic, who doesn’t sit alone in their flat a Thursday evening watching fucking Top Model in their sweats.

It’s not that Harry is unhappy, because he’s not. But he’s learned how to live by himself and he doesn’t expect anyone to hold his hand anytime soon. Harry doesn’t hate himself, he doesn’t hate his life and he doesn’t hate the world. He has accepted who he is (and that his inside might not be attractive to others), he has accepted that he has a job he may not love but gives a good enough paycheck every month and he has accepted that even though the world is horrible, there are people who have it far worse than himself.

Harry has fucking _accepted_ that this is his life.

And he’s okay with that, he is. He just needs routine in his life and that’s what he got.

But then there’s Niall who just has to come and be fucking gorgeous and have a beautiful laugh and smooth hands. And Harry just wants to scream a little. Because this is not what he wants. Niall is a disturbance in the force, he’s making him weak and vulnerable and it’s humiliating.

He eats the rest of the pizza and Tyra Banks says that there are two beautiful girls standing in front of her, but she’s only got one photo in her hand. Harry turns off the TV because he doesn’t want to see either of the girls cry (and also because he fucking hates Top Model, why was he even watching it in the first place?).

He’s halfway in to bed when he remembers that tomorrow is Friday and he’s going to the pub with Louis. And then he realises that Niall is coming along too.

Harry doesn’t sleep that night.

\---

Harry must have fallen asleep at some point in the early morning hours because he wakes up with a snap when Marimba starts playing at 6.30. He’s so tired that it feels like his body is going to break in to a million pieces any second now. He feels a little sick, too, because he’s so nervous about tonight that he doesn’t know what to do. Should he call in sick today? He’s not sure if he can handle this. But the thought of Louis teasing him about him chickening out is too much to handle.

This is why he manages to drag himself to work (he falls asleep on the tube and almost misses his stop) and wishes for Louis to come soon with his coffee. He needs the caffeine if he’s going to survive the day.

Louis does arrive to work soon, five minutes earlier than usual, carrying an extra large coffee as always. He barely takes a glance at Harry when he hands him the mug, but Harry can see the dislike in his eyes.

”Nice style you chose today for going to the pub with Niall, you’re really rocking the living-dead look. The dark circles goes exceptionally well with your green eyes.”

Harry groans and slams his head down on his desk. It hurts a little but he doesn’t care. If he hits his head hard enough maybe he doesn’t have to go tonight.

”We’ll bring the alcohol to the A&E if you hit your head hard enough, don’t worry” says Louis and is he a fucking _mind reader_ too? Harry wouldn’t be surprised at this point. He sighs and raises his head to look at his supposed-to-be best friend. Louis is smiling widely at him.

”No but seriously, you look like shit.”

”I didn’t get much sleep tonight” Harry mumbles and scratches the back of his head.

”Up all night wanking while thinking about tonight?” Louis asks with a cheeky grin. Harry wants to hit him in the head but he’s too fucking tired so he settles for his middle finger. Louis laughs, but it’s the nice kind which means that he’ll stop acting like a fucking prick.

”I get it, mate, you’re nervous” he says and shrugs his shoulders. Harry sighs and puts on his best puppy face as he pears up at Louis through his lashes. Maybe if he’s cute enough Louis will let him pass this. He doesn’t understand how he thought this was a good idea at first.

”Sorry mate, you’re going. I don’t know what you worry about, it’s going to be great! Me and Zayn will make it not-akward, just wait and see.”

This does not calm Harry down a bit. He sighs and Louis pats his shoulder.

”Anyway, I’ll see you at lunch, yeah? What did your bring today?”

”Tuna sandwiches” Harry mumbles. Louis gives him a thumbs up before he leaves Harry’s cubicle. Harry hopes that his tuna is poisoned so he dies and doesn’t have to go out tonight.

He’s not that lucky, because the tuna tastes fine. He and Louis are sitting at one of the round tables in the lunch room on their floor. It’s brightly lit with fluorescent lights in the ceiling which gives the room an uncomfortable hospital feeling. It’s one of the reasons why they choose to eat out every day despite their wallets complaining. Another reason is the fat guy that works over by the big board. He always eat lunch at the office and he’s got this really uncomfortable stare that neither Harry or Louis can handle. There’s a sign above the sink that says ”Your mum doesn’t work here” and it’s disgustingly cliché and Harry wants to strangle the one who put it up. Luckily, they only eat in here once a week.

Louis is eating his Caesar salad from Tesco’s and talking about how great it’s going to be tonight. Harry is usually pumped about going out - it’s a nice way to finish off the week and blow money he doesn’t really have - but today is different. Of course. Fucking everything is different. Fucking Niall will be there.

Apparently, Louis has asked him a question because he snaps his fingers at Harry to get him down on earth again.

”Stop over thinking, Harry, it’ll be fine, I promise” he says and sighs. Harry doesn’t say anything.

”I can’t remember it being this hard for you to meet people in uni?” Louis continues and chews on some chicken.

”That’s because they weren’t Niall.”

”You’re aware that you’ve put him on like, the highest pedestal of all time? I’m not sure if it’s good for you, you know.”

”Yeah, I know” Harry says and sighs.

”Hey, stop moping, it’s going to be fine.”

Harry doesn’t answer.

”Will it make you happier if you can have the rest of my salad?” his friends asks with a sigh and his eyes are kind. Harry thinks that he has to get friends who don’t know him so fucking well, it’s not good to have people around you who can bribe you so easily. But he accepts the salad nonetheless. Would be a shame to waste it, really.

Some time later during the day, Zayn pops by his cubicle. He doesn’t look so stressed today, oddly, but he keeps dragging a hand through his hair so Harry suspects it’s all an act. But Zayn smiles and actually takes the time to lean against Harry’s desk and take a sip of his lukewarm coffee from the machine in the lunchroom. Harry doesn’t mind this because the coffee tastes terrible anyway.

”Did you hear about Johnson?” Zayn asks and makes a face at the disgusting liquid. ”Ugh, this is disgusting” he mutters.

”No, what about him?” Harry asks, his interest perking up. He’s talked to Chris a few times, enough times to be on first name basis, anyway. Chris works right by the copy machine so Harry has passed his cubicle a good amount of times during his time here.

”He’s being transferred to the Edinburgh branch.”

”What?!”

”Yeah, Finnegan saw him trying to nick a bunch of pens, and then later a fucking stapler and he got really pissed, like.”

Harry can’t stop himself from laughing.

”What an idiot. But isn’t that a bit of an overreaction, though?”

Zayn shrugs his shoulders.

”Must’ve been a bloody expensive stapler” he winks. Harry laughs again, but it’s a bit sad to see Chris go, a nice lad and all that.

”Yeah, but rather that than being fired, yeah?” Zayn pats him on the shoulder. ”I don’t even think he’s very good at what he’s doing, his reports are proper messy, like.”

Harry nods understandingly.

”But hey, you’re coming tonight, right? It’s gonna be great, I’m really looking forward to it. I heard that new guy on the fifth floor is coming too, Niall, right?” Zayn says with a bright smile. Harry nods and smiles a little at the mention of Niall. He’s in it so fucking deep now.

”Yeah, it’ll be great” he says and tries to sound like he believes it.

When Zayn has left, Harry tries his very best to work and not think of NiallNiallNiall. He half succeeds and that’s good enough for him. But when the clock strikes 4.30, he’s so nervous that he thinks that maybe he’ll puke his lungs out. So he takes some extra time to finish up, thinking that if he stalls this enough it won’t happen. But then Louis pokes his head inside the cubicle with a shit eating grin on his face.

”Ready to go, mate?”

\---

”Um, I don’t really drink, actually.”

Three pairs of eyes turn to look at Niall. Well, two pairs, because Harry was already looking.

They’ve just sat down in a booth at a pub Harry and Louis visit quite regularly (because the bartender is very friendly and always gives them a free round of beer). It’s just after 10 (there had been some misunderstanding; they were supposed to meet right after work but Zayn was occupied so Louis and Harry had to go to McDonald’s for something to eat because Harry was about to faint from his nerves) and Zayn has just offered to buy the first round when Niall speaks up.

”You don’t drink? At all?” Louis asks, a little baffled and somewhat curious. He lays his arms to rest on the table. Niall shakes his head.

”I’ve done it a few times, but I don’t feel the need to, really” he says and shrugs his shoulders. ”I’ll just have a Coke.”

”But you’re Irish” Louis says and leans forward on his elbows. Harry swats him on the arm. He can be so close-minded sometimes. Niall chuckles at this.

”Preconceptions, mate.”

”So, three beers and a Coke, then?” Zayn says and walks off to the bar.

Louis nudges Harry’s arms with his elbow (they’re sitting next to each other with Zayn and Niall on the other side of the table with Niall opposite Harry) (Louis’ idea, of course) and Harry looks at him. His friend doesn’t say anything but his eyes speak clearly enough. This kind of spoils his entire plan of getting Niall drunk so he won’t notice Harry’s awkwardness. Harry gives him what he hopes is a stern look but he’s not sure Louis gets the message. Because Louis grins at him and stands up.

”I’m going to help Zayn with the beer, don’t have too much fun without me!”

A blush spreads across Niall’s cheeks and Harry wants to melt through the floor. Niall is looking at an apparently very interesting spot on the table and he’s not saying anything and this is going to be very awkward very soon if Harry doesn’t do anything.

”So, how’s things going up on the fifth floor?” He mentally cringes. Why, why, why - does Niall have to do this to him?

Niall actually chuckles quietly at his awkwardness. Harry thinks that it might be the most beautiful sound he’s ever heard.

”They’re good, things are going fine” he says and looks up at Harry. His eyes are glittering, practically glowing at him and Harry wouldn’t mind dying right now, looking right into them.

But he hasn’t got the time to die because then Zayn and Louis are returning, carrying the beers and Niall’s Coke. Louis gives Harry a questioning look as he slides in next to him on the seat and Harry gives him a barely visible shake of his head. It didn’t go well.

He zones out a bit after that and doesn’t really follow what the others are talking about because he’s too busy looking at Niall. He does it discreetly of course, he’s not an idiot. Niall is laughing at something Louis said and his eyes are crinkling, his nose is scrunching up and Harry can’t recall having ever seen something more beautiful. This is so stupid.

”Right, Harry?” Louis nudges him in the side and catches his attention.

”Hm? What?” Oh, how embarrassing.

”I just asked you a question, but your mind seems to be somewhere else” Louis says with a grin.

”Uh, yeah, I’m a bit tired” he lies and glances at Niall. The blond Irishman is watching him while sipping on his glass of Coke with a small smile.

”What did you ask, anyway?” he turns to Louis again, who waves his question away with his hand.

”Not important now, but it’s good to have you with us.”

Harry rolls his eyes. But he pays more attention after that. He learns that Niall likes Bon Jovi and noodles, that he moved to England because it was easier to get a job and that he’s one year older than Harry. Harry carefully files all this information away in a new, sacred part of his memory bank. He doesn’t want to forget anything Niall says.

Some time later, Harry offers to buy the next round. Niall passes the offer on another Coke and Louis follows Harry to the bar.

”Three beers, please” Harry says to the bartender and rests his forearms on the bar while he turns his head to Louis.

”Spit it out, I know you’re disappointed in me” he says.

Louis sighs. ”I just wish you’d speak to him a little more, that’s all.”

”But I can’t” Harry half whines. ”I can’t even think straight around him.” He looks down at the bar desk and runs his fingers over the polished wood. Louis rubs his shoulder.

”Well, I’ve noticed how he constantly sneaks little glances at you, if that changes anything.”

Harry glares at him. ”Well, of course he is! I’m sitting there looking like an idiot, everyone always looks at the idiot!”

”Or, it could be because of your charming face and luscious locks” Louis says with a smile and tugs on one of Harry’s curls. Harry sighs. The bartender puts down three pints of beer in front of him and Harry slips him a note across the shiny surface.

”Cheers, mate” he says and grabs two of the cold glasses. ”Let’s go back to the table.”

Louis sighs behind him.

”You deserve an award for getting out of so many discussions, Styles.”

Niall and Zayn seem to be engrossed in a conversation when they return to the table and Harry is both jealous and angry with Zayn for having it so easy to talk to Niall.

”Ah, Louis!” Zayn says as Louis puts a glass in front of him. ”You prefer dogs over cats, right?”

”Of course” Louis says as he sits down. ”Dogs are the man’s best friend.”

”That’s what I said!” Zayn exclaims and then points his thumb at Niall. ”Irish here, thinks cats are better.”

”That’s ‘cause they are” Harry interjects, because this is a matter he has strong opinions in. Also, Niall turns to him with a wide smile and it just makes his whole night.

”Yes” Niall says. ”Cats only like you if you deserve it, you have to earn their love.”

Harry nods.

”And that makes it a lot better.”

Louis rolls his eyes but Harry can detect the hint of a smile on his lips.

”Ugh, cat lovers. Go form a club or something” he says and waves a hand between them. With his other hand, he pinches Harry in the thigh under the table, making him jump and instinctively slide across the booth and closer to Niall. He doesn’t realise that he’s done it until he’s so close he almost touches Niall’s leg with his own.

Oh, Louis is _sneaky_.

Niall chuckles and raises his fist.

”The cat lovers club.”

Harry bumps his fist and has to smile, because Niall is perfect.

”I’ve got a cat, actually” Niall says, his voice lower now, like it’s a conversation between just him and Harry.

”Do you?” Harry is a little jealous. Niall nods.

”Mhm, Saturn, she’s almost one.”

”You named your cat _Saturn_?”

”Yeah, her pattern looks almost like rings and Saturn’s got rings, so” Niall says, a little sheepishly and shrugs his shoulders.

”You named her Saturn because she’s got rings in her fur? Why not Precious, then? From Lord of the Rings” Harry says, because what a wasted opportunity that is.

Niall sighs.

”You know, it’s not the first time I’ve heard that” he says, but he smiles so Harry assumes he’s not angry about it. Oh _god_ , his smile.

”But she doesn’t look like a Precious, she looks like a Saturn” Niall continues and takes a sip of his Coke.

”You should meet her sometime, t' see for yourself” Niall says then and Harry’s heart nearly stops. Niall says it so nonchalantly, like it’s not the biggest thing ever. Like it’s not a _life changing_ thing to say.

”Yeah, I should” Harry manages to get out, and hopes he doesn’t sound like a total idiot.

Niall smiles.

”Oi, cat lovers!” Louis says from across the table. Harry is forced to look away from Niall and instead at his best friend’s face. He’s never been so displeased to see it.

”Unfortunately, I’ve gotta dash.”

”What, why?”

”Well, as you probably remember dear Harold-”

”Is your name Harold?”

”-yes, Irish, his name’s Harold. As you remember, _Harold_ , I have a dentist appointment early tomorrow morning and I’m not an irresponsible 19-year old anymore” Louis says and holds his chin high.

”You kind of are, though” Harry points out and takes a swig of his untouched beer.

”So your name’s really Harold?”

Harry turns to Niall.

”Yeah? What about it? Nobody calls me that, anyway. Well, apart from the idiot over there.”

”Isn’t that an old person’s name?”

”His middle name’s Edward, like the vampire” Louis interjects with a grin. Harry shoots him a glare and gives him his middle finger. Niall laughs.

”What’s your middle name, then?”

”James” Niall says, and his eyes glitter with laughter. Or maybe it’s just the lighting. Harry can’t even bother trying to come up with a reply, his eyes are too distracting. Luckily, Louis interrupts again before his staring can become creepy.

”Well, I’ll be off then.” Louis stands up and grabs his jacket. Niall downs the rest of his Coke and burps. Louis frowns.

”I’d better be off, too. My girlfriend said she wanted to spend the night” he says.

It feels like a punch in the face and Harry suddenly has difficulties breathing. He sees Louis stiffen in the corner of his eye, but luckily, Zayn doesn’t notice. Instead, he asks:  
”  
Girlfriend, ey? She fit?”

Niall just grins and winks at him. Zayn chuckles.

”You’ve been together for a long time?”

”Nah, just a few weeks.” Niall shrugs his shoulders and Harry turns to Louis who meets his eye and nods.

”Alright, I’m going. Harry, you’re coming with me.”

Harry doesn’t question it, he just nods and slides out after him, thankful for the opportunity that Louis’ given him. He turns back as he pulls on his coat and raises a hand in goodbye before he hurries outside after Louis. _Yes_ , he knows he’s acting weird and that he’s most likely left their friends wondering but it can’t be helped.

The minute he steps outside, Louis grabs his elbow and drags him around the corner.

”Shit, I’m sorry Harry” he says and he sounds so sincere that it almost breaks Harry’s heart.

”It’s fine” he sighs. ”I wasn’t really hoping or anything, anyway, so...”

”But he can still be into cock” Louis points out and Harry sighs again.

”And what difference would that make, huh? He’s still got a girlfriend. And even if he does fancy guys, why’d he go for me? No one else does.”

”Non of that, Harry. Everyone else is an idiot, he’s the one who matters right now. And you’ve got to make him see that you’re better than her. Steal him. They’ve only been together for a few weeks, it can’t be that serious yet.”

”He might just not fancy blokes” Harry sighs and kicks a pebble.

”Change his mind.”

”Why are you so persistent about this?” Harry almost shouts, because he just wants to be a little miserable and maybe watch Les Mis when he gets home.

”Because you’re my best friend and you’re clearly smitten by him and you’d look fucking great together” Louis half shouts back. Harry stuffs his hands in his pockets and looks down.

”This is going to happen. And if you’re not going to do anything, then I will.”

And well, Louis’ got his Serious Voice on. Harry’s heard it enough times to know that when Louis Tomlinson uses his Serious Voice, shit’s going down.

Harry can’t help but smile.

\---

Harry wakes up with his legs all tangled up in the sheets the next morning. Then it takes him another thirty minutes before he manages to get up. He may not be a teenager anymore but he still has troubles getting out of bed. Bu when he does, he slips on some sweatpants and wanders off into the kitchen to find something to eat.

He puts the kettle on and opens the fridge door to have a peak inside. Nothing out of interest. And the only thing in the fruit bowl is a more brown than yellow banana and Harry’s not up for that shit. He sighs and takes his phone from his pocket to type a message to Louis.

 

**Fancy brunch?**

 

The reply comes in an instant.

 

**I just got home from the dentist - if you can be here in 15, I’ll make you waffles.**

 

And yes, this is the reason why he’s Harry’s best friend. Harry hurries off to his room to change into proper clothes and then he walks briskly to the bus stop.

He doesn’t make it to Louis’ in 15 minutes, because it’s physically impossible given the distance between their flats, but he’s there 23 minutes later and lets himself in. The flat smells of waffles.

Louis’ head pops out from the doorway to the kitchen. He smiles.

”I have waffles waiting for you, get over here.”

Then he smacks Harry’s bum with his spatula when he walks past him but Harry is willing to accept it. He gets waffles, after all.

”How’d it go at the dentist?” he asks as he drops some raspberries over a waffle.

”My teeth are perfect, as expected” Louis says with an award winning smile as he pours some more batter into the waffle iron.

”Oh course they are” Harry says with his mouth full of waffle and rolls his eyes. Louis gives him a look but doesn’t say anything about it. Instead, he takes the place opposite Harry and says:

”So, we’re going clubbing tonight.”

”Are we?”

”Yep, we’re going to find you a man. You need distraction from Niall, remember what we talked about.”

Harry sighs.

”Lou, you know I’m not comfortable with those kinds of situations, it’s just not my thing.”

”How else are you going to find someone to shag?”

”I’ll just... Do I have to?”

”Harry,” Louis gives him a stern look. ”Don’t be silly.”

Harry sighs again and takes another waffle.

”Why can’t I just continue to live like a monk? It’s worked perfectly well so far.”

Louis just quirks his eyebrow at that. Harry tries again.

”Well, why don’t we find you a girl then? You’re as lonely as me.”

He licks some berry juice off his finger and then looks at Louis.

”We’re going to find you a guy, and that’s it” Louis says and crosses his arms.

And that’s it.

Later that evening, Louis comes to Harry’s flat for some pre-clubbing drinks.

”Shouldn’t we have invited someone else?” Harry asks as Louis pours tequila in shot glasses with intense concentration. ”Isn’t it a bit weird, just the two of us going clubbing?”

”No, it’d take the focus off tonight’s mission” Louis answers without taking his eyes off the glasses.

Harry sighs. Louis hands him one of the shot glasses.

”Bottoms up” he says and clinks it with his own before bringing it to his lips and quickly tilting his head back. Harry does the same and the alcohol burns on its way down his throat.

”Wow, it’s been a while since we did this” Louis says and coughs once before starting to refill the glasses. They take two more shots before Harry stops him; they wouldn’t want to get stopped in the door for being drunk.

Then they take the tube to the club. Louis’ chosen some gay club Harry’s not been to before. To be honest, it’s been a while since he went out. This doesn’t seem to bother Louis at all, who almost drags him towards the entrance and the bulky security guard. He lets them through with just a nod and a small wave of his hand, barely glances at them. They pay their entrance and hang their coats in the wardrobe and it’s not until then that Harry really takes the place in.

He’s been to gay clubs before, not often, but he went to a few during his uni years. This one looks very similar to the others; a bar, a dance floor, a few tables and booths and lots of blinking lights. It’s just a normal club, except there’s only guys present.

Louis slings an arm around Harry’s shoulder.

”Let’s go buy a beer” he shouts in Harry’s ear and leads the way to the bar. He orders for them and Harry thinks that he could never handle the job of being a bartender at a place like this. How anyone can hear anything over this loud music is beyond him.

Then Louis’ pushing a pint into his hand and points at a free table for two over by the wall. They make their way over to it and sit down. Harry’s head is already starting to hurt from the loud music and all the lights.

”Do you see anyone fit?” Louis shouts over the music and Harry starts to search the crowd. They all look the same to him. He shakes his head. Louis brings his glass to his lips and takes a look around.

”How about him?”

He points discreetly towards a young guy, can’t be more than 23, with light brown hair who stands by the wall, looking down at his phone. Harry can’t see much of his face, but his body looks good enough and more importantly - he’s not dressed in glittery clothing.

Yeah, he’s okay.

”Ask him for a dance” Louis urges him and tries to push him off the chair.

Harry sighs, despite knowing that Louis won’t hear him. It’s not worth trying to tell him that he doesn’t dance (which Louis knows very well by now) because he won’t care.

So Harry downs his pint and stands up, leaving his glass behind, and walks over to the stranger. He leans against the wall, close enough for their arms to almost touch.

”Hello” he shouts over the music and leans a little closer to his ear. The guy looks up from his phone and at Harry and oh - he’s kind of pretty. Harry’s gotta admit, Louis’ got a good eye. He looks almost innocent.

”Hi” he answers with a smile and scans Harry’s body. His smile widens and he winks. _Maybe not so innocent_ , Harry thinks.

”You look bored” he shouts. ”Wanna dance?” He waves a hand lamely towards the crowded dance floor. The guy nods, still smiling. Harry wonders if Niall would agree to dance with him.

_Oh, for fuck’s sake._

The guy grabs Harry’s hand and leads the way, which makes Harry relived. The guy turns to him when they’ve found a spot that’s not too crowded and places his hands on Harry’s hips. Rihanna’s playing and it’s not really Harry’s cup of tea but it’s easy to dance to when he more or less just copies the other guy’s moves. Harry tries not to think of Louis who’s probably watching everything from the table. He puts his his arms around his neck and tries not to think at all.

The guy inches closer, presses his whole body flush against Harry’s and rocks his hips. Harry gasps when the movement makes something stir in his stomach and he rocks back. The guy groans in his ear and presses his lips to Harry’s neck. He lets his hands slide down from Harry’s hips down to his bum and squeezes.

Louis was right, it’s probably been too long. Harry’d almost forgotten how amazing this feels.

He grabs a handful of the other guy’s hair in response and tugs, not too hard, but hard enough to make him groan again. Harry can hardly see straight. The other guy moves his right hand from Harry’s arse, lets it wander to his front and in between their bodies. He palms Harry through his tight jeans and now it’s Harry who moans. There’s a voice in his ear.

”Loo?”

Harry nods, doesn’t even register that this is not a thing he usually does. Ever.

The guy takes his hand again and leads him through the sea of bodies and it feels like it takes them years to reach the bathroom.

It’s brightly lit in there and Harry has to squeeze his eyes shut. It’s stinks of urine. He’s pushed inside a booth and hears the door lock. He opens his eyes and thankfully, it’s a little darker in here.

In a little brighter light than out in the club, the guy looks a little different. Not as pretty as Harry first thought, but pretty enough. His eyes are brown.

He gives Harry a smile and presses a sloppy kiss on his lips as he brings his hands to the front of Harry’s jeans and quickly unzips them. He looks down between them as he pulls down the hem of Harry’s boxers and his breathing instantly gets heavier.

Brown Eyes backs, just slightly, there’s not much room. He goes down on his knees and peers up at Harry. Harry nods and - _oh, god_.

The guy is brilliant with his tongue. He swirls it around the tip of the head in a way Harry’s never experienced before and almost swallows him down completely. Harry can’t help but buck his hips forward, until he can feel the back of his throat. The guy moans around him and brings his hands up to pin Harry’s hips to the wall. Harry wonders how Niall’s mouth would feel, how his hands would feel on his hips. A whimper escapes his mouth and-

Harry comes before he even gets a chance to warn him, but the other guy doesn’t seem to mind. He almost greedily swallows and Harry sees stars. The guy licks him slowly as Harry comes back down to earth. Harry looks down at him and tugs him up by his collar. He pushes his tongue into his mouth and can taste himself and that’s a taste’s he hasn’t had in his mouth for a long time now.

He pushes his hand down the front of his trousers and tugs. Brown Eyes moan and his cock lies heavily in the palm of Harry’s hand. Harry lets go to lick his fingers and wrap them around him again. The guy whimpers and it doesn’t take long for him to come. Harry’s shirt stains with sticky sperm.

Brown Eyes leaves a sloppy kiss on Harry’s cheek before resting his head on Harry’s shoulder. He pants and Harry tucks him back inside his underwear.

”This was fun” the guy half whispers, half laughs in his ear.

Harry laughs quietly but doesn’t say anything. In his post orgasmic state, a feeling of - guilt? - is starting to form. This isn’t what he normally does, this isn’t him. Was he really that desperate? Also, he can’t help but feel guilty towards Brown Eyes, because he kept thinking about Niall.

Harry realises that he doesn’t even know the guy’s name.

He also realises that he doesn’t want to know.

Louis’ waiting for him at the table when he returns. There’s two new pint glasses, only one of them drunken from. Louis pushes the full glass towards him.

”So you actually blew him in the toilets?” Louis shouts at him. ”You dirty bastard.”

”I only gave him a hand job.” Harry takes a big swig of his beer. ”He did the blowing.”

Louis groans.

Harry gulps down the rest of the beer and slams the glass down on the table. Louis looks at him curiously.

”Wasn’t he any good?”

”Oh no, he was great” Harry says truthfully. ”But I couldn’t stop thinking about Niall.”

Louis groans again, louder this time, before standing up. He ushers Harry to do the same.

”Alright” Louis says and puts his arm around Harry’s shoulders. ”Let’s get you properly drunk.”

\---

Harry wakes up the next morning with a headache. No, not a headache. Full on body ache. He’s never felt worse in his life.

And there’s someone in his bed. A body, snuggled up against him.

Harry has a moment of panic before he opens his eyes and sees that it’s only Louis. He calms down. Then he panics again and doesn’t calm down until he looks under the covers and sees that they’re both wearing their boxers.

Then he sees the water glass and the aspirin sitting on his bedside table and kisses Louis on the forehead for being such a good, foreseeing friend. He swallows the pills and drinks the water before going back to sleep.

When he wakes up the next time, he’s alone in bed. He takes a few seconds to see how he’s feeling and yeah, he still feels like shit. Not as much, but still like shit.

He even stumbles a little when he gets out of bed.

Louis’ in the sitting lounge watching telly. He looks at him when he enters and flashes him a grin.

”God mate, haven’t seen you this hangover since uni” he says and Harry realises that Louis isn’t hungover at all.

”How’re you not feeling ill?” he groans and falls down on the sofa next to Louis. Louis throws a blanket to cover him up and Harry remembers that he didn’t put on any clothes.

”Because you’re the only one who drank after your little visit to the gentlemen’s.”

Harry groans again.

”I can’t even remember what happened afterwards” he says and presses the hells of his palms to his eyes. Louis pats him on the arm.

”Does it make you feel better if I say that you didn’t do anything embarrassing?”

Well, that does make it a little better.

”How about I order some pizza, yeah?”

They spend the rest of the day on the sofa, eating pizza and watching crap telly. Louis goes home sometime in the evening and Harry goes to bed, his head ache finally gone.

”You left in a hurry last Friday.”

Harry turns around in his spinny chair and sees Zayn leaning on the doorway to his cubicle. It’s Monday, around 10 o’clock and Harry has done exactly none of the work he should’ve done by now.

”Yeah” he says. ”Yeah, I, uh, I had to go with Lou.”

He mentally face palms himself, because he should’ve come up with a good lie.

”Yeah, well, it was a bit weird” Zayn says slowly. Harry shrugs his shoulders.

”Sorry.”

Zayn looks at him a bit weird (but Harry can’t blame him) and then he leaves. Harry thinks that maybe he should get on with his work, or maybe play some Flappy Bird, he’s got a record to beat, after all. But he tires after only half an hour. Partly because his work is _dead boring_ , partly because the stupid fucking bird keeps flying into the pipes, but mostly because he can’t stop thinking about Niall’s eyes.

So he goes for a stroll around the office. He even takes a route past Louis’ cubicle to see what he’s up to.

”What up, Hazzy?” Louis says with a ridiculous American accent when he spins around in his chair and sees Harry. Harry wonders why he’s friends with this idiot.

”Please don’t ever call me that again” he says and leaves with a sigh. He’s just turned around when he bumps into Zayn again.

”Harry! Just the one I was looking for” Zayn exclaims with a relieved sigh. He shoves a bunch of files into Harry’s arms.

”What’re these for?” Harry says, takes a closer look on the descriptions and sees that he’s already done with these. ”These don’t belong to me, I’m finished with them.”

”I know, they belong on the fifth floor, but we’ve had some problem with files going everywhere. Can you take them up there for me?”

”Yeah, sure” Harry says lightly.

”Great, because some of the things in here are new up there, you might need to explain a thing or two.” Zayn pats him on the shoulder and runs off again. Harry thinks that he himself would never survive with the speed Zayn works at every day.

He takes the lift up to the fifth floor and it’s only when he steps his foot out on the floor that he remembers that this is where Niall works. His heart immediately speeds up in a way that is more creepy than not.

But oh well, he should just get it over with. It’s just, he doesn’t know who to give the files to. Finding Niall would be the best, since they’ve met before and all that. Yeah, that’s what he should do.

Harry starts wandering between the cubicles, peeking in as he passes to see if he can spot the Irish blond. It takes him a few rows, but then he recognises a head covered in dyed blond hair. His heart speeds up even more and he has to take three deep breaths before he dares to knock.

The man in the swivel chair immediately turns around and Harry’s met with Niall’s face. He looks surprised at first, but then he breaks out into a big smile.

”Harry!” he says cheerily and stands up. Niall walks the few steps over to Harry and hugs him with one arm.

Harry’s not sure he’s actually breathing.

”D’you come up here often?” Niall takes a step back and winks at him. Harry might faint.

”Uh” he fiddles with the folders in his hands. ”Zayn wanted me to take these up to you, he said I might have to explain some things.”

Niall takes the folders from Harry’s stretched out hands. Harry quickly rubs his palms on his trousers to get rid of his sweat. _God, this is so embarrassing_.

In an attempt to take his mind off of Niall, who’s now opened one of the files and slowly looks through the pages, he starts to look around. Niall’s cubicle is a lot more personalised than Harry’s, and Harry’s worked here for two years now.

There’s a poster of a football team that Harry doesn’t recognise on the partition, and a picture of a city. There’s a photo of a cute cat on the desk with what looks like rings in the fur. There’s stickers covering the frame of his computer screen, Harry leans closer and can make out an Irish flag and a four-leaf clover.

”Oh,” Niall says suddenly. ”I’m sorry, have a seat.” He points towards his chair and Harry sits down as Niall himself moves to lean against the partition. Harry forces himself to tare his eyes away from him, but it’s hard. He’s got his ankles crossed and his shoulders are a bit hunched because he’s resting his weight on his shoulder blades, making his suit coat strain. Harry takes a deep breath and closes his eyes before turning around and facing Niall’s desk.

This close, he can see notes and papers covered in a handwriting that’s surprisingly neat, Harry had expected Niall to be the kind of person who’d still write as a five year old. And it all seems very organised; everything lays in neat piles and all the pens are in a holder. On Harry’s desk, the pens are everywhere. His cubicle is probably the messiest on his floor.

”This bit right here” Niall says and all of a sudden he’s standing right next to Harry, leaning over the desk where he’s put the file. ”What does it mean? I don’t recognise it.”

Harry has to try his very best to explain all the different numbers, but it’s all very hard. Because Niall’s right there, so close that he can make out his eye lashes and see splashes of yellow in his blue eyes. And Niall nods along to what Harry’s saying, like what he says is interesting and matters and it makes Harry’s heart swell.

”Hey, Niall, do you - oh, am I interrupting?”

Both Harry and Niall turn around at the same time. In the doorway to Niall’s cubicle stands a brown haired man that looks like he’s about Harry’s age. He’s got broad shoulders and his suit jacket makes them look absolutely amazing. There’s a stubble on his chin and he’s got thick eyebrows.

He’s _hot_. Probably one of the most attractive people Harry’s ever seen but still, he pales in comparison to Niall.

”Liam! No, not at all, come in” Niall says, his face breaking out in a smile. Liam takes a step inside and Niall points to Harry.

”This is Harry Styles, he works on third.”

The guy - Liam - offers his hand.

”Liam Payne” he says with a smile and his grip is strong.

”Harry was just explaining some things in these rapports for me” Niall tells Liam, who peaks down at the open file on the desk. He nods thoughtfully before straightening his back again.

”I’ve had some problems with those new forms, too” he says. ”But anyway, I was wondering if you’d be interested in grabbing some lunch later?”

Niall nods cheerily and turns to Harry.

”Care to join?”

”Can’t, I’m eating with Lou” Harry says, not sure if he should be relieved about it or not.

Niall shrugs his shoulders. ”Bring him, it’ll be fun!”

”I’ll ask if he’s up for it.” He definitely will be.

Liam leaves with a smile and a ”see you later” and Niall smile at Harry. It almost hurts to look him in the eye, like he’s the sun. He probably is. Harry tears his eyes away and points to the football poster for distraction.

”What team is that?”

”Derby County!” Niall says excitedly. ”The best team in the world.” He points towards the picture of the city.

”And that’s my hometown, Mullingar.”

”Do you miss home?”

It takes Niall a few seconds to answer and Harry fears that maybe he got too close to his heart to fast.

”Yeah, sometimes. But my life here is great. I’ve got a job and a flat, a girlfriend and the best cat in the world.” Niall points to the photo on the desk. Harry nods and tries to smile even though Niall talked about his girlfriend like that.

”What about you, are you from London?”

Harry shakes his head and looks at Niall again.

”Cheshire, it’s three hours away.”

”Do you ever miss home?”

And suddenly Harry feels incredibly lonely. Niall came all the way from Ireland, managed to get a job and a cat and a girlfriend and Harry just came from Cheshire and all he managed to get was a blowjob in a dirty toilet the other day. He really should get a cat.

Harry nods.

Almost two hours later, he leaves the office with Louis, Niall and Liam. Just after Niall had asked Harry if he misses home, he’d gotten a phone call and Harry had to leave. They quickly made plans to meet by the entrance later and then Harry was off to his own floor.

Louis was up for lunch with Niall and Liam, of course, just like Harry thought. They’ve decided on a small pub just a few streets away that Liam claims serves great burgers. He and Louis hits it off immediately; Liam looks a bit intimidated mixed with awe by Louis’ energetic personality. This leaves Harry to chat with Niall, which he doesn’t know if he likes or not. But Niall is easy to talk to, or well, Niall does most of the talking and Harry listens. He learns about Derby and Mullingar and how awful it was to go to an all boys’ school when he was a kid.

Harry learns that Niall is more than a pretty face and cute accent. He’s not just the Irish guy who doesn’t drink and likes cats - he’s also really funny, compassionate and alive.

”So, how was the weekend, lads?” Niall asks as they sit down at a table. He’s sitting diagonally across the table from Harry and it’s too far away, really. Or maybe it’s a good thing; this way Harry can’t accidentally touch his knees with his own, which would probably make his heart race in a very embarrassing way.

”It was good” Zayn says and flips open his menu.

”Mhm, very good indeed, for some of us” Louis interjects and winks at Harry. Harry glares at him.

”What did you do?” Zayn asks Louis, somewhat suspicious because he’s heard that tone in his voice before. Louis leans into him like he’s going to tell him a secret, but he speaks loud enough for all of them to hear.

”Well, me and Harry went clubbing and guess who had sex in the toilets?” He points not so discreetly at Harry and why the fuck is he friends with this dickhead. Harry sighs loudly and buries his head in his hands.

”It was just a blowjob, I told you” he tries to say, but his words are drowned by the whistling and wolf calls from the other four. Really? Are they adults or fucking fifteen?

”Was he any good?” Zayn asks and leans towards Harry with his forearms placed on the table. Harry looks up and nods, despite himself. The guy was good.

”Wait - he?”

Harry turns to Niall, who looks at him with surprise written in his face.

Harry nods again.

”So you like guys, then?”

”Yeah.”

Harry’s heart beats furiously. He’s probably going to faint.

Niall just nods and gives him a smile.

”Cool” he says and Harry’s heart slows down a bit. He turns to Louis who winks at him and suddenly Harry realise why he outed him like that. _It was because of Niall._ Fucking Louis.

Their food arrives and the lunch hour passes, thankfully without any more comments from Louis about his sex life. Louis’ burger is the most beautiful thing Harry’s ever seen, and judging by the look on Louis’ face, he feels the same. There’s melted cheese dribbling down the side and it’s so greasy that he gets diabetes by just looking at it. Louis moans around his first bite.

”Oh my god” he sighs and closes his eyes before going in for another bite.

”You sound like a porn star, it’s unsettling” Harry complains and slaps him over the head. Louis opens his eyes and glares at him before shoving his burger in his face.

”Try for yourself” he urges. Harry’s not gonna lie, this was kind of what he was hoping for. And _god_ , what a magnificent burger.

Harry looks at Niall while he eats. In a not-creepy way, of course. Niall devours his burger and chips like it’s the most delicious thing he’s ever eaten. Harry adores the way he eats. Niall talks and laughs a lot to things that Louis says. Harry adores the way he uses his breath. Niall listens carefully to everything they say. Harry adores the way he quiets down and track their movements with his eyes.

And Harry thinks that even though he can never have Niall, he would very much like to be his friend. That’s what he decides, as they walk from the pub and back to the office. He will try to bury these stupid, childish feelings or whatever he has for Niall, and just be his friend.

He just has to figure out how to do that.

\---

Meeting Liam Payne turned out to be a great thing. Zayn’s taken liking to him as well, and the five of them has formed a beautiful and a bit strange friendship (the last thanks to Louis). They always have lunch together, and in the past two weeks, the other three have come with Harry and Louis to the pub on Fridays. There’s been no more mentions from Louis’ side about Harry’s homosexuality.

(”You can’t _tell_ people things like that!” Harry had told him after that first lunch with all five of them. ”Did it occur to you that it might be something I’d like to tell myself?”

Louis had sighed and even looked a bit ashamed. Harry would forever remember this moment.

”Yes, I know, I’m sorry. But he needed to know, needed to know his options, you know? And I’m not completely sure you’d ever tell him!”

”You couldn’t know how he’d handle it! He could have reacted very badly” Harry pointed out with his arms crossed over his chest. He wanted to be mad at his best friend, but he knew that he did it with good intentions. Being friends with Louis Tomlinson could be very hard sometimes.

”Yes, but he didn’t.”

And then Louis bought him a week’s consumption of Snickers and that was that.)

And Harry tries really, really hard to only see Niall as a friend.

It’s not working very well.

Because Niall is simply amazing and Harry is so stunned that he’s even allowed in his presence. And also because he wants to suck his dick. Just a little. But he also wants to cuddle him and maybe share food and fight for blankets and press cold feet against each other and shampoo each other’s hair.

Harry just wants to be with Niall.

But Niall has his girlfriend (who Harry has learnt, is called Emma. He hates Emma.) and even though things are not going very well with them, they’re still hanging in there. Apparently, Emma is a bit jealous that Niall all of a sudden spends so much time with his newfound mates, aka. Harry, Louis, Liam and Zayn.

Harry can’t help but be a little flattered, though, because he’d overheard Niall defending them on the phone with her. Louis, who’d also heard this, whispered to Harry: ”You’re chance’s almost here, mate.”

But Harry made himself a promise. He’s going to try to be nothing but Niall’s colleague, and friend.

”Mornin’, Curly!”

Harry spins around in his chair and is met with a smiling Niall leaning against the partition to his cubicle. Niall has taken up a habit to pop by for a visit, once or twice a day. This is equally good and bad.

”Morning, Niall” says Harry and takes a sip of the coffee Louis recently brought in for him. Niall walks inside and goes to lean against Harry’s desk instead, his bum resting on the edge of the table, dangerously near Harry’s hands.

Harry puts his hands in his lap and tries to not look bothered.

”What’re you dressing up as on Friday?” Niall asks and fiddles with the buttons on his sleeve. He’s not wearing his suit jacket, is only clad in his white shirt and the two top buttons are undone and if Harry looks real close he can see soft chest hair and -

There’s a company party in two days. There’s always a theme, and this time it’s celebrities.

”Shit, I’ve completely forgotten about that!”

Niall chuckles and pats him on the shoulder. Harry’s skin burns.

”Who’re you going as?” he asks, partly because he wants to know but mostly to distract himself.

”That, you’ll see on Friday, my dear Harold” Niall winks. Harry has to remind himself that he only wants to be Niall’s friend. Only his friend.

”Are you bringing someone? Maybe you could come up with something together, then” Niall continues then which causes a slight blush to appear on Harry’s cheeks.

”No, I’m not bringing anyone” he almost mumbles and then clears his throat.

”What about you? Are you bringing Emma?” Just saying her name makes him want to vomit.

”Nah,” Niall shakes his head. ”I think we’re about to break up.”

Well, this is a bit of surprise. Sure, they’ve been having some problems but this is not what Harry excepted, at least not now.

”Wow, I’m sorry” he says, because that’s what you’re supposed to do.

Niall shrugs his shoulders and doesn’t look all too bothered.

”We’re not working out, ’t wasn’t really serious, anyway.” He stretches out and snags Harry’s coffee from the desk and takes a sip before standing up and rubs his hands from his chest and down to straighten out his shirt. Harry tries not to think too hard about the way the muscles in his chest become visible as the fabric strains against his body.

”Well, gotta head back to my own floor, see you at lunch, yeah?”

Niall disappears with a smile and a pat on Harry’s shoulder and Harry has to calm down for a few seconds before he lifts his office phone. He’s got the number to Louis’ phone on speed dial. Louis picks up after he first ring.

”Too lazy to walk the incredibly long way over here?”

”Lou, I need your help.”

”You always need my help.”

This is sadly enough, true.

”Can you just come over here?”

Louis sighs on the other end of the line. ” _Fine_.”

Louis’ there thirty seconds later with two granola bars in his hand. He hands one to Harry and sits down crossed legged on the floor with his back to the partition.

”What’s the issue?” He asks and looks up at Harry while unwrapping his granola bar. Harry looks closer at the one in his hand. It’s packed with fruits and can apparently replace a whole meal. This seems highly unlikely, Harry thinks and weighs the small snack in his hand. Very unlikely, indeed.

”I haven’t got a costume for the party in two days.” He opens the granola bar and takes a bite. It’s nice, but he’s definitely having lunch later.

”Don’t worry, I’ve got an idea.”

This is not surprising.

”Let’s hear it then.”

”Miley Cyrus.”

Harry has to take a second to take in what Louis’ just said. Louis looks at him like he just said the most natural and not-weird thing in the world.

”Miley Cyrus” Harry repeats and Louis nods.

”Miley Cyrus.”

”Lou, I’m a 24 year old man.”

”I’m very well aware of that, yes.”

”I think that you might be confused. I’m _gay_ , not a drag queen.”

Louis just sighs and glares at him before taking out his phone. He types something on it and then scrolls for a bit.

”This is not just the general Miley Cyrus we’re speaking of. I’m talking about the VMA Miley Cyrus.” Louis shows him his phone. Harry can feel his eyes widen.

”You want me to dress in women’s underwear - _shiny_ women’s underwear and tie my hair into little buns?”

”Of course not” Louis looks genuinely offended. ”You don’t have to wear a bra, shiny boxers will do just fine.”

Harry can’t believe what he’s hearing. But on the other hand, he shouldn’t be surprised.

”So you’re saying that I should show up to a party, full of my coworkers, dressed in nothing but my boxers?”

Louis nods.

”You’ve gone mental. You’ve gone absolutely mental.”

”No no no, hear me out” Louis says and scrambles up from the floor.

”Your hair is the right length. You’ve got the body. Oh no, admit it, Harry, your body looks great. You’ve got abs, although I’m not sure _how_. Also, your tats are great. And we can cover your nipples!”

”I’d still be half naked, though.”

”And what a great opportunity to show Niall what he’s missing, huh?”

Somehow, some _fucking_ how - Harry’s not sure - Louis actually convinces him into go as a half naked Miley Cyrus.

This can only go wrong.

Harry goes out on a mission to find shiny underwear after work. He’s not sure exactly where to look, though. He also has to buy a foam finger, which he saw Miley had on the pictures he looked at for reference. So the first thing he does is to go to a sports shop. The foam finger Miley used had what looked to be like red nail polish.

Harry takes the closest looking thing he can find, which is surprisingly accurate. Louis will be proud of that.

In the photos, Miley wears skin coloured underwear. Harry can’t find that, but he does manage to find orange boxer shorts. And, they’re shiny. He snapchats a picture of them to Louis who quickly responds with a picture of himself doing a thumbs up.

Louis himself isn’t going as lightly dressed as Harry, apparently. No, he’s dressing up as one of the Kiss members. Harry’s not sure what the member’s name is, but it’s the one with a star over his eye. Zayn’s dressing up as the one with the freakishly long tongue. Harry asked if he couldn’t join them, but that would be ”a waste of a good opportunity” according to Louis.

Harry fears that maybe he lets Louis decide too much in his life.

The last thing he gets is some thin, black duct tape sort of thing and hairbands. As he sits down on the tube home and looks at his shopping bags, he thinks that this may be the worst choice of his life. Louis is so getting his head smashed in if this doesn’t work.

\---

It’s officially Friday. They were allowed to go home from work half an hour earlier and Harry can’t really complain about that. It’s about an hour until he’s going to be at work again and he’s about to start putting his costume on. Or more like it, get naked.

It feels weird putting on the shiny pants, but they do fit really nice. Harry notices when he studies himself in his mirror, that his arse looks great in them. He just hopes that he won’t get a boner during the night, because that would be highly unfortunate.

He finds pictures on Google of Miley’s hair in different angles and puts both himself and his computer in front of the mirror. It’s a bit tricky getting his hair into two perfect little buns, especially getting all the hair in there, but he manages in the end. He cuts small strips of the black duct tape and makes a cross over each nipple and then he looks himself in the mirror.

He looks fucking ridiculous.

Harry looks at his watch. It’s almost time to go. He’s just about to put on his shoes when he realises that he’s almost naked.

He can’t go outside almost naked.

So he returns to his bedroom to grab a pair of trousers and a jumper that he quickly puts on. Then he puts on a loose beanie to cover his stupid hair buns and throws on his coat and he’s out, with his foam finger in a plastic bag hanging from his hand.

The party is held on the fifth floor because they have more open space and less cubicles than on Harry’s floor. The walls are covered in garlands and balloons and it feels more like a birthday party for a small child than a company party. Everyone’s not there yet so it’s not cramped with people, but still enough to make it not-awkward. Harry spots the table with alcohol near Niall’s cubicle and standing next to it - of course - what looks to be two members from Kiss. Harry tries not to draw any attention to himself as he sneaks past them and off to the toilets to take off his clothes. He folds them neatly and then stuffs them in the plastic bag. He takes off his beanie and checks in the mirror that the buns are still intact and puts on his foam finger.

It’s still so fucking weird. Like, _what the fuck is he doing_ , weird.

But Harry takes a deep breath and unlocks the door. He opens it just a tiny little bit to see if anyone’s standing outside, but the area’s clear. He makes a beeline past Niall’s cubicle to leave his plastic bag there and then he takes another breath before he walks up to what he assumes is Louis and Zayn.

Louis is standing with his back against him so Zayn notices him first and his eyes widen in an almost cartoon looking way. Louis whips around and gasps.

”You _actually_ did it!” He sounds genuinely impressed and smiles brightly.

Harry opens his mouth and grins while he stretches his tongue out as far as he can, like he saw Miley do in the photos. Louis laughs and puts his arm around him.

”You’re a better Miley Cyrus than the actual Miley Cyrus” says Zayn and hands him a plastic mug. Harry squints at the liquid in it.

”It’s some kind of punch” Zayn says. ”Surprisingly strong.”

Harry takes a sip and yeah, the alcohol taste is much stronger than it usually is. He turns to Louis.

”Did you spike it?”

”You think I’d waste my own alcohol on this shit of a party?” Louis asks, genuinely offended as he gestures to the rest of the party.

Harry spots a few people dressed as Obama, one Michael Jackson and what is probably one of the Spice Girls. The red haired one, Ginger? Harry was never a big fan.

”Oh look, here’s Liam” Zayn says and Harry follows his eyes. Batman is walking towards them. It’s not a cheap looking, just-fabric-with-print-Batman costume, but something that looks very much like the actual Batman suit. Harry is very impressed.

”You do know that Batman doesn’t count as a celebrity, right?”

Louis doesn’t sound nearly as impressed.

Batman takes off his mask and it’s not Bruce Wayne, but - tadaa - Liam.

”What do you mean? Everyone knows who Batman is.”

” _Yes_ , but he’s _fictional_.”

Liam just shrugs his shoulders and lets his gaze fall on Harry.

”Wow, didn’t know you had these many tattoos, Harry!”

Harry looks down on his body, well, mainly his left arm, and yeah. There’s a lot of ink.

”Ooh, I love the ship” Liam compliments and looks closer. ”Who are you supposed to be, anyway?”

”Miley Cyrus, Lou talked me into it.”

Liam looks at him dumbfounded.

”I have no idea who that it.”

Both Zayn and Louis sigh but Harry just pats him on the suit with his foam finger.

”That’s alright, Liam. You don’t need to know.”

”Whoa!”

Harry, as well as the others, spin around to the sound of an Irish voice from behind them. There’s Niall, dressed as a footballer in white. His eyes are trained at Harry, or more specifically, Harry’s chest.

”Well, thank god you covered your nips, Harry. It’d be scandalous if you didn’t.”

If Harry hadn’t learn to recognise the playful tone in his voice, he’d probably worry.

”Wouldn’t want to show too much skin, would I?”

Niall laughs and hugs him. Maybe it should be considered weird, Niall hugging a shirtless Harry, but it isn’t. It’s wonderful.

”Who are you dressed as?”

Niall turns around and shows the name on his back and the number seven.

”Cristiano Ronaldo, mate!” Niall whips around again and flashes him a big smile.

Harry looks him up and down. He’s got very skinny legs and bony knees, revealed by the white football shorts. He’s got shin pads under his white socks, but it’s still obvious that he’s got chicken legs. The football shirt is a little loose around his torso but show enough of his slightly toned arms. He looks very good in white. Very good, indeed. Ronaldo may be extremely fit, but Harry thinks that he’s nowhere near as hot as Niall looks right now.

He has to turn his eyes away.

”You make a good Ronaldo” Zayn says and smiles. Louis hands Niall a non alcoholic drink (”Nah, Lou, give me a proper one, I’m drinking tonight” Niall says and Louis swoops in to give him a kiss on the cheek before he pours him a new drink) and Niall compliments them on their very accurate face makeup. Harry turns to get some salted peanuts from the table. There’s a low whistle.

”Your arse looks great in those, Harry” Louis says, and Harry looks over his shoulder to see Louis eyeing his behind, looking immensely impressed. So Harry’s not the only one who noticed, then.

”Cheers” he says and smacks his bum.

”This has to be one of the greatest ideas I’ve ever had” says Louis, pride in his voice. Zayn rolls his eyes.

”I don’t know what other great ideas you’ve had, Lou, but I have to agree that getting Harry to dress as Miley Cyrus is a great one” Niall says and raises his glass to toast with Louis. Louis winks at Harry and Harry turns back to his peanuts. He’s not sure if Niall’s taking the piss or not and it makes him uncomfortable. Louis must sense this, because he changes the subject.

”Hey, let’s toast for a great night, yeah?”

The night continues like that, constant toasting for various things.

(”There wasn’t a queue to the loo! Toast!”

”My makeup hasn’t smeared yet, toast to that!”

”Let’s toast to Liam managing an almost perfect headstand!”

”None of us have puked yet, woo!”)

The things they toast to get sillier the more alcohol they consume. They stay to themselves for most of the night, only chatting to their coworkers once in a while. Harry gets a few looks, both disapproving and hungry (to his great pleasure) and Liam earns some compliments on his suit.

At some point - Harry has no absolute idea what so ever about the time, but people have started to retreat - they end up in Niall’s cubicle. They all sit in a circle on the floor. Well, circle is what they were going for, but they’ve shuffled around a bit. Liam’s lying down on his back and Zayn’s leaning his back against the partition. Harry’s properly drunk by now, he feels warm and fuzzy and it takes a bit of effort to focus his gaze on Louis who’s sitting opposite him.

”I propose we play a game” Louis declares and raises the bottle he’s nicked from the table outside.

”Yes!” almost shouts Liam and lamely raises a closed fist.

”What kind of game?” Niall asks and makes grabby hands for the bottle. For someone who normally doesn’t drink, he’s been drinking a lot. He handles his liquor surprisingly well for someone who shouldn’t be used to alcohol, but Harry guesses that it’s the Irish blood in his veins.

”Spin the bottle!”

Zayn groans.

”No chance, Lou, we’re not kids.”

”Al _right_ , grumpy head” says Louis and looks genuinely offended. ”Charades, then?”

”Yes, charades” Liam pants and sits up. ”I want to play charades!”

Louis nods. ”Go ahead, Payno. You may go first.”

Liam scrambles up from the floor as fast as he can, which isn’t very fast. He falls over once which makes Niall laugh loudly. He’s been laughing an awful lot, Harry’s noticed. His cheeks are beautifully rosy and Harry wants to lick his skin.

Once Liam’s standing, swaying a bit from side to side, he frowns for a few seconds before he lights up.

”Okay, is everybody looking? Okay, here I go.”

He brings up his hands in front of him and moves them in seemingly random movements next to each other, like he’s holding something between them.

No one says anything. Harry starts to chuckle.

”What the fuck is this supposed to be, Li?”

”You on a roller coaster?” Zayn asks, looking very concentrated. Liam shakes his head and continues with his movements.

”Are you a robot?” Louis suggests. Liam shakes his head again.

”Okay, Liam, spill the beans” Niall says and Liam sighs.

”It’s a lawnmower! Get it?” He makes the movement again. Louis looks at him like he’s gone absolutely mad. To be fair, Liam is very, very drunk.

”That’s the worst lawnmower I’ve ever seen, Liam.”

Liam half sits down, half falls down on Louis. Harry can’t tell if it’s some sort of revenge or if Liam just doesn’t want to stand up anymore.

Niall gets up from the floor, has to stand on all fours for a few seconds to gain balance. Harry has to stop himself from letting his mind wander to what he’d like to do to Niall standing like that.

”Eyes on me, lads.”

Niall stretches out both his arms in front of him, straight out. Then he moves them to his sides, still stretched out. He turns around and moves his arms in front of him again and then repeats it. It almost looks like he’s giving directions. Harry can’t help but think that Niall looks sort of like an aeroplane with his arms stretched out at his sides. An aeroplane. Directions.

”Flight attendant!” he shouts out.

Niall shouts back at him, raises his arms above his head.

”Yes!” He rushes towards Harry and falls down on him, knocking him back so Harry’s flush against the floor with Niall on top of him. Harry doesn’t even have time to think about the fact that _Niall’s laying on top of him_ before Niall’s pressed his lips hard against Harry’s. It’s short, over in half a second and then Niall hovers over him with a big grin on his lips.

Niall kissed him. It was probably just a celebratory kiss because he’s drunk, but he _kissed him._

Harry can’t move. He stares up at Niall, who’s grin slowly fades. It feels like he and Niall are the only ones there, the only ones in the world. And Niall is so fucking beautiful.

And then something bursts inside of Harry.

Suddenly, he’s gripping the back of Niall’s neck, pushing himself upwards with his other hand. He presses his lips against Niall’s, hard, and then he bites down on his bottom lip.

It’s probably the alcohol. But Niall whimpers and opens up his mouth for Harry. Harry pushes himself up properly, so he’s sitting up with Niall straddling his thighs on the floor. He moves his hand from Niall’s neck to the back of his head, tugging at his hair, while his other hand comes to rest at his hip.

He pushes his tongue inside Niall’s mouth and it feels _amazing_. Niall’s arms are wrapped around his neck and he’s pushing his chest hard against Harry’s.

Harry feels like he’s on fire.

Someone clears his throat, twice.

Niall breaks the kiss and both he and Harry turn their heads.

Harry had completely forgotten about their three friends. Liam is watching them wide wide eyes, completely frozen. Zayn looks a bit smug and Louis, well, for once Harry can’t decipher his expression.

Niall turns his head back to look at Harry and he’s quiet for a moment before he chuckles a little and starts to stand up. Harry instantly feels cold, except for one part of his body which is very much on fire and alive. He looks down at his shiny, tight pants and sighs.

”Well, dear Harold, that’s unfortunate” says Louis and then the ice’s broken.

\---

It’s Monday. Harry has never not wanted to go to work this much. He’s spent the whole weekend dwelling over the kiss. And he really doesn’t want to see Niall today. He hasn’t had any contact with him at all during these two days.

Like, he knows that Niall was drunk. The kiss probably didn’t mean anything to him. It was just a drunken snog between to mates, that’s all. Except to Harry, it’s the best thing that’s ever happened. And simultaneously the worst, because Niall doesn’t feel the same.

Louis comes to work ten minutes earlier than he usually does; he’s only ten minutes late today. And instead of just bringing Harry an extra large coffee, he also brings three white chocolate and raspberry cookies, which are Harry’s absolute favourites.

”How’re you feeling?” Louis asks as he puts down the treats on Harry’s desk. Harry sighs and leans back in his chair as he rests his hands on the back of his head.

”I don’t know” he says. ”I just want it to never have happened.”

”But why? This is the time when he will come forth and confess his undying love for you.”

”Except he won’t. He was drunk, it didn’t mean anything.”

Louis sighs and strokes his hair. Harry takes a bite out of one of the cookies. He hands it up to Louis who takes a bite and hums appreciatively.

”Wow, I thought you were exaggerating, but this is amazing” he says, his words somewhat muffled by the cookie in his mouth.

”I know, right? I never want to eat anything else.”

There’s a knock on the partition and both Harry and Louis turn. Niall. Harry’s hands drop down.

”Hey” Niall says, his words more of a sigh.

Louis shuffles backwards.

”I’m gonna go back to mine” he says and sends Harry a quick smile before he heads off. Niall looks after him before he steps inside. He looks absolutely divine.

Harry hands him a piece of his cookie. Niall accepts it and shuffles his feet a little.

”So about Friday” he starts but then interrupts himself. He clears his throat and starts again.

”I’m not sure-” he stops again and fiddles with his hands. He looks everywhere except at Harry. What is happening here?

”Look, I don’t know what that kiss meant to you, but to me it was really confusing.”

Harry swallows.

”Why?”

Niall takes a deep breath. Then another one, and one more. Then he looks at Harry and his eyes are so blue that Harry feels like he’s about to drown.

”I don’t fancy blokes, alright? Never have. But that kiss, it was - I don’t know what it was but it felt. Good.”

Harry feels like he’s about to faint. Everything’s blurry.

”I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, to be honest” Niall says and lets out a little laugh. His eyes drift around for a few seconds before they fall on Harry again.

”I’d appreciate if you’d say something, mate.” He lets out that little laugh again.

”Go on a date with me” Harry blurts out, and wow, he did not plan on saying that. Niall looks equally surprised. Harry clears his throat.

”Like, we could. If you’d like.”

His heart is beating so _incredibly_ fast. Harry didn’t know it could do that. Maybe it’s dangerous. Maybe he’ll have a heart attack and die.

Niall nods and smiles, but looks a little unsure.

”How about lunch today, yeah?”

”Lunch. Yes. Lunch’d be great.”

Niall smiles again and makes a move to leave.

”I’ll see you by the entrance later, then.”

And then he’s gone.

Harry waits for 30 seconds before be spurts out of his chair and dashes over to Louis’ cubicle. Louis turns around as soon as he enters.

Harry falls down to the floor on his stomach. Louis always said he’s such a drama queen, he might as well live up to it. He groans into the carpet. It smells weird. He groans again and flips over on his back, covers his face with his hands and groans louder.

”What’d he say? Was it bad?”

Louis sounds concerned. Harry drops his hands from his face and looks up at him.

”We’re going on a lunch date.”

Louis fucking squeals and flops down on Harry. He says something but his voice is muffled by Harry’s shirt and Harry doesn’t care what he said anyway. Louis lifts his head and looks at Harry expectantly. Harry meets his eye.

”I’m going to die.”

\---

It’s Monday night and Harry can’t stop thinking about lunch earlier today. Louis had managed to calm him down enough so that he was able to actually go to the entrance when his lunch hour started. Niall was already there waiting for him and Harry’s mouth got all dry. He was torn between running into his arms and running back to his cubicle. But then Niall spotted him and smiled and Harry was pulled towards him, his smile magnetic.

They’d gone to the Subway not far away, because Niall was craving a sandwich. Not the most romantic option, but Harry was almost thankful for that. But he payed for Niall’s meal, at least. (”I invited you, didn’t I?”) They sat down to eat at one of the small tables in the corner. It was extremely awkward at first. The kind of awkward that made Harry wish that he could just disappear through the floor and never come back. But then Niall started to talk about his cat Saturn. Then he told Harry that it was officially over with Emma.

(”I mean, it was impossible for it to work.”

”Why?”

”Saturn didn’t like her. I can’t be in a relationship with someone that she doesn’t like, right?”)

Niall got sauce on his chin, at some point. Harry wanted to be cheesy and maybe lean over the table to lick it off, or wipe it away with his thumb, but he didn’t. Instead, he pointed at the mess and Niall sent him a grateful smile as he wiped it off with his finger and then brought it to his mouth. Harry didn’t know if he was going to survive. (He did, obviously.)

”So, um, you know how I said earlier that I don’t fancy guys, yeah?”

Harry had nodded.

”But there’s something about you, you know? Like, magnetism. And I think that maybe, if you’d like, we could, you know, see how things went. If there could be something.”

And it was like the earth stopped.

Fuck just being friends. Fuck trying not to look at Niall. Fuck not thinking about him. Fuck it all.

Niall looked at him, a mixture of expectation and fear in his face. Harry’s palms were so sweaty that his sub almost fell out of his hands.

He took a breath and cleared his throat.

”I’d like that.”

And he even managed a smile. Niall smiled back, a wide and relieved smile.

Then they’d walked back to the office, soon after that. Tight schedule, and all that. Harry had so desperately wanted to take Niall’s hand, like he’d wanted to ever since that first day. He let his right hand sway close to Niall’s a few times, and once their fingers even brushed. He didn’t look at Niall, didn’t dare to, but in the corner of his eye he saw Niall turn his head slightly to look at their hands. And then, a moment later, Niall’s hand brushed against his.

And it took all of Harry’s will to not stop and scream and maybe jump a little from joy, right there and then.

He did glance at Niall to give him a smile smile, and got one back in return.

So it’s Monday night and yeah, Harry can’t stop thinking about it. Does this mean that he’s dating Niall now? Like, he can definitely call them a ‘thing’ now, at least?

He and fucking _Niall Horan_ are a thing.

The impossible was made possible.

Harry can’t for his life understand how it happened. Why did it happen? He knows he shouldn’t, like, congratulate himself on anything too soon, because it might not work out. Niall did point out that he’s never fancied guys and that they’re only trying out if something could develop. But Harry’s more than fine with being his guinea pig for this.

Tuesday. Niall texts Harry at 9.36, asking if he wants to have lunch today again, just the two of them. He even puts a small ’x’ on the end. Harry responds, with shaky fingers, that yeah, absolutely. Then he spends fifteen minutes in Louis’ cubicle, freaking out a little. Louis massages his shoulder in an attempt to get him to calm the fuck down. Harry pretends it doesn’t work so that he’ll massage him a bit more.

Wednesday. Harry plucks up some courage and takes the lift up to the fifth floor. He asks Niall if maybe they could go out for Chinese during their lunch hour. Niall smiles sweetly and nods and then Harry stays there for almost an hour, sitting on Niall’s floor while Niall tells him more about Ireland and Derby.

Thursday. Niall and Harry take a walk in the park close to the office when their day is over. Niall chuckles at the sight of Harry’s briefcase (Niall himself has a black messenger back slung over his shoulder) and Harry’s cheeks tint, before Niall assures him that it’s charming. And then Niall seems to hesitate for a short moment, before he swiftly reaches out and takes Harry’s hand. It makes Harry’s breath hitch and he looks down at their conjoined hands. They’re swinging lightly as they walk. Harry looks back at Niall, who swallows. Harry squeezes his hand.

Friday. Louis tells Harry: ”Niall’s new at this, okay? He’s never been with a guy before. You’ve got to take the lead. Prove to him that you’re worth it.” And Harry’s not gonna lie; he’s terrified. Because this is Niall. They have lunch with Louis, Liam and Zayn. The others don’t mention anything, even though they’ve been eating without Harry and Niall for a week now. Niall and Harry sit next to each other and Harry tries to brush his shoulder against Niall’s as often as he can. When they get back to the office, he pulls Niall aside before they enter the lift.

”Do you want to come over to my flat tomorrow? I can make dinner” he asks, with Louis’ words in his head and butterflies in his stomach.

Niall smiles and nods.

\---

Saturday. Harry is freaking out. It seems like a thing he’s doing a lot these days.

 

A list of reasons for his panic:

1\. Inviting Niall for dinner was a burst of spontaneity and he has no idea on what food to make

2\. He hasn’t cleaned his flat

3\. His flat looks like shit

4\. He just realised his plates are all scratchy but he hasn’t got the time to get new ones, obviously

5\. Niall’s coming to his flat

6\. Niall’s going to sit by his table and most likely on the sofa

7\. Niall’s going to eat with his cutlery and drink from one of his glasses

8\. Niall’s going to leave his shoes by the door and hang his jacket on one of the coat hangers

9\. Niall’s going to breathe in Harry’s home

10\. Harry still hasn’t got a clue on what food to make

 

He calls Louis, like he always does in a moment of panic. Louis is actually of help, for once.

”I made this one meal for a girl once, yeah?”

Harry’s heard this story before, and he grins to himself as he stuffs his phone between his shoulder and ear and holds his hands out in front of him. He acts out the familiar movements with his hands as Louis speaks.

”Chicken, stuffed with mozzarella, wrapped in parma ham with mashed potatoes.”

”Mm, and it’s gotta be homemade too. Very important.”

There’s a second of silence.

”You did the hand movements, didn’t you.”

”Don’t act like you didn’t.”

Louis chuckles on the other end.

”Well, yeah. But how about that, huh? Easy meal, but probably enough for Niall. Boy’s got no standards. Maybe do a dessert, though.”

Harry goes out to buy groceries. Well, he rushes out to get groceries. He manages to find chicken and the mozzarella is on sale but he can’t find any parma ham (probably because he’s not looking hard enough) so he goes with bacon instead. He figures nothing can go wrong with bacon. After that he finds some easy bake panna cotta and Louis did tell him to make dessert, so he puts that in his basket as well. Then he stops by the potatoes because he has no idea how many he’ll need, he’s never done his own mash before. In the end, he realises he’s stood there for far too long and grabs what is probably too much. The girl in the checkout looks warily at his probably slightly panicked expression. It can’t be helped, he needs to get home as fast as he can.

Back home, he texts Niall his address and tells him to be there by seven. He looks at his watch. That leaves him six hours. He should make it.

The first thing he does is clean. He whips out the old vacuum cleaner duster and even cleans his wobbly glass table in the sitting room that he bought second hand. He still doesn’t know why, it’s probably the ugliest table he’s ever seen.

Then he sets to work in the bathroom. He cleans the mirror from all the toothpaste spots and throws all his dirty clothes in the hamper. He should probably be ashamed of the state his flat is in.

He even changes the sheets in his bed. He knows it’s probably in vain, but if anything were to happen, he wouldn’t want to offer dirty sheets to Niall. He is a boy of manners, after all.

When he’s done, he’s got a little over four hours left. Louis texted him a sort of recipe on how to make the dinner and it shouldn’t take more than an hour.

So Harry spends the next three hours panicking some more, because why not, and cleaning up even more (he has to stop himself when he’s arranging the hangers in the hallway so there’s equal amount of space between them). He takes a shower, complete with a nervous wank and then trims his stubble so it’s only a few millimetres. He uses far too much deodorant and probably too much after shave as well.

Then comes the difficult task in choosing what to wear. The skinny jeans are a given choice, but what else? He doesn’t want to look under dressed, but at the same time, not over dressed. He also wants to look a little bit cuddly, in case the moment arises. It’s a thin line and Harry’s not sure if he’s able to walk it.

But the biggest problem is probably his wardrobe. Harry stares at it in disbelief. How has he not seen this problem before?

He’s _literally_ got a million black and white tee shirts. They all look the same. And then a thousand checkered shirts in _slightly_ different colour patterns. Plus a handful of band shirts and fancy buttons downs.

Harry rubs his face and groans. What the fuck is wrong with him? _How_ can he go and buy so many similar looking clothes? They haven’t even come in packs, he’s actually gone out and bought them separately.

He’s so angry with himself.

But there’s not much to do about it now. After some serious pondering and spinning around in front of the mirror (he feels more like a hormonal teenage girl than he’d like to admit) Harry decides on one of his many black tee shirts. This one’s got a stretched out collar that makes the wings of his swallows peak out. He puts on a necklace and rolls up the collar and it doesn’t really get much better than that.

And his hair looks quite good, so there’s always that.

Then he’s only got a bit more than an hour left so he panics again and decides to start making dinner. He’s never been a master chef but he’s okay, so it should be fine. He puts on his apron, because that always makes him feel more professional than he is. And then he puts his iPod in the speaker and turns the music up loud, because he absolutely can not cook without music.

He cuts open the chicken filets and slices some mozzarella to push in. Then he wraps them very carefully in the bacon. He makes four, just to be sure. He knows Niall eats a lot, by now. The mashed potatoes is a bit harder and Harry has to search for a recipe on his laptop to follow but it goes smoothly after that. He fries the chicken for a bit before putting it in the oven and sets the table. He considers making it all fancy with a table cloth but decides against it, best not to overdo it. He does put out a candle that he lights and his finest cutlery. Which is his ordinary cutlery, but Harry figures he can pretend.

The panna cotta is the easiest thing ever to make, it’s just a powder that he has to mix and Harry’s almost ashamed that he’s not making his own. Almost. He puts them in the fridge and just then, the doorbells rings. Harry almost doesn’t hear it over the music but then it rings again. He freezes and glances at the clock on the wall. Seven. He’d completely forgotten the time. Oh god. Oh god, Niall’s here.

Harry turns down the music a little and dashes to the door and takes a deep breath before he opens it. Niall’s smiling up at him.

”Hi” he says and then he chuckles. ”Didn’t know you were a housewife.”

Harry looks down and sees that he completely forgot to take off his apron. He decides to go with it and shrugs his shoulders while flashing Niall a smile.

”Well, it’s time you get to know the real me.”

Niall laughs. _Mission complete._ Harry steps to the side to invite Niall in. He takes a few steps back to watch Niall remove his jacket and then his shoes. Niall’s wearing black jeans (that Harry has to admit, fits really well on his arse) and a red, checkered shirt, buttoned all the way up. His hair is styled a bit different than is usually is, it looks like he put more effort to it. Harry has never seen anyone more beautiful. When Niall looks up at him, Harry gestures for the kitchen.

”Just gonna check on the food.”

The chicken looks good, not done just yet, but it’s getting there and it doesn’t seem like he’s failed too much.

There’s a movement behind him so Harry straightens out and turns around.

”I know it’s like, customary for the guest to bring wine or something, but since I don’t drink, I didn’t” Niall says, looking somewhat sheepishly and _oh GOD_. Harry completely forgot about what they were going to drink.

Jesus fucking _christ_. What is he going to do now?

”Oh, don’t worry about it” he dismisses Niall with a wave of his hand and smiles. He tries to think about what he’s got at home but all he can think of is squash. Fucking _squash_. Oh well, he’d better just go with it.

”In fact, for our meal tonight we’ll be drinking this” he bends down to retrieve the - thankfully - still full bottle from the cupboard ”Orange squash, Tesco’s finest.”

Niall laughs loudly at that and takes the few steps between them to wrap his arms around Harry, still laughing. Harry stiffens for a moment, but Niall’s laugh is contagious and soon they’re standing with their arms around each other, in Harry’s kitchen, laughing.

”You’re great” Niall says into the fabric of Harry’s shirt and it makes something flutter in Harry’s tummy. Niall leans back and looks at Harry with a content smile.

”How about a tour of the flat?”

They begin in the lounge next to the kitchen.

”This is the lounge. It’s where I lounge.”

Niall snorts and has a look around. Harry knows it’s not much. He’s got the ugly table, an okay looking rug, the sofa, the telly, a sad looking fern and a bookcase filled with everything but books.

Then it’s the bathroom. It’s quite small so they just stand outside and have a look. Niall compliments him on his rubber duck shower curtain.

Harry resists the urge to tell Niall that ”this is where the magic happens” when they reach his bedroom, because that would be a lie. There’s not much magic happening anywhere in this flat. His bedroom isn’t much to brag about either. There’s his bed (although, it’s a great bed, big and comfy) and his laptop and wardrobe. Niall looks mildly impressed. Harry doesn’t blame him.

”So you live on your own, then?”

”Yeah, it’s just me” Harry says and tries not to sound too bum about it. He shrugs his shoulders.

”Anyway, that’s it. I should go see how the food’s coming along.”

Niall follows him back to the kitchen. Harry has a little peak inside the oven and it looks about done. He cuts into one of them just to be sure and it’s all white. Good that, he wouldn’t want to give Niall salmonella. That’d be very unfortunate.

He orders Niall to have a seat and then grabs to wine glasses from the cupboard.

”How strong do you like your squash?” he asks and starts to pour the mix into the glasses. Niall chuckles and tells him ‘when’. Harry smiles back at him and fills the glasses up with water.

”Here” he says and hands Niall one of the glasses and Niall clinks it with his own.

Then he serves up the food on two plates, tries to make it look fancy but probably fails miserably. Niall chats to him meanwhile, about his day and the old lady in the escalator. Harry loses himself in his voice.

When he puts down the plates on the table, Niall looks closer at his food and asks:

”Are you serving me mash and a heap of bacon?”

”No, no, no, it’s mozzarella stuffed chicken, wrapped in bacon.”

Niall has a taste and then hums appreciatively.

”It’s fucking delicious, Harry.”

They eat in mostly silence, but sometimes the silence is replaced with a few shared words but it doesn’t feel forced. It feels good. The music’s still on, it’s switched to Mumford & Sons’ first album and it just adds to the atmosphere. Harry bumps his knee against Niall’s under the table. Niall bumps back.

He looks almost painfully beautiful in the light from the lit candle. He looks so comfortable sitting at Harry’s table, in Harry’s kitchen. He looks like he belong there.

It makes Harry’s heart ache and he just hopes, that he won’t fuck this up. He can’t afford to fuck this up.

He clears their plates from the table once they’ve both finished, even though Niall makes the polite offer to do it. Harry just dismisses him and places the dishes in the sink. He grabs the panna cottas from the fridge and two small spoons and watches Niall’s eyes light up at the sight.

”This looks great” Niall says and gratefully accepts his portion. ”Did you make it yourself?”

”If by making it myself, you mean using a pre-made mix, then yes. I did.”

Niall chuckles and has a taste.

”Well, it tastes nice” he says cheerfully and then his foot touches Harry’s and stays there. Their feet are touching. It’s like, toe flirting. Almost. Sort of. Harry’s going to faint.

Well, he doesn’t. But he blushes and has to look down at his dessert to not make it so obvious. He’s such a loser.

Niall’s toes stroke against his ankle. Harry can’t fucking breathe. Niall chuckles and does it again. Harry looks up.

”You’re cute when you blush” Niall murmurs and does it again before taking another spoonful of his panna cotta.

Jesus fucking christ holy shit fucking hell fucking fuck good god

Harry could die right here, right now, and be happy. Niall just called him cute. Harry’s brain almost freezes for a second before he remembers that he should probably say something back.

”You’re always cute.”

Niall blushes at this, with a wide grin on his lips. He rubs his chin against his shoulder and Harry’s in total awe.

Niall finishes his dessert, still grinning and looking at Harry. Harry feels like he could float away. He takes their bowls and refills their glasses.

”Let’s move to the sofa,” he says. ”Much comfier.”

He puts the telly on and lowers the sound so it’s barely audible. There’s only one lamp lit, the one in the corner so most of the light comes from the TV screen.

Niall sits down first, close to the middle with one of his legs tucked under the other so he’s turned a little to the side. He takes a sip of his orange squash and places his glass on the table. Harry sits down next to him, shifting so he’s facing Niall. They’re close, so close that their knees almost touch. Harry can almost feel the warmth radiating from him.

He can’t resist but stretch out his fingers, just a little, just enough for him to be able to reach Niall’s bony knee and just place his finger tips there. He focuses his gaze on where their bodies now meet, and adds his thumb, strokes it lightly over the fabric.

”I decided to drink at the company party because of you” Niall speaks lowly and Harry looks up at him.

”Because of me?”

”I’d found you attractive from the beginning, and then you just stood there, without a shirt, with all those tattoos...” Niall nods to the ink on Harry’s arm. ”And I couldn’t handle it.”

Niall looks a little sheepish and gives Harry a nervous smile.

Harry’s heart has never beaten this fast.

He lets go of Niall’s knee and leans closer, places his hand on Niall’s waist and brings his other up to cup Niall’s cheek. It’s warm and flushed under Harry’s palm and Niall’s eyes close.

His lips are soft and delicate under Harry’s and move slowly in sync with his own. The butterflies are going mad in Harry’s tummy.

Niall’s hand comes to rest on Harry’s thigh and he squeezes once. Harry tightens his grip on Niall’s waist and inches closer. He nudges at Niall’s lips with his tongue and Niall exhales a puff of warm air over Harry’s lips when he opens his mouth.

His mouth is so warm, his tongue so soft and Harry tilts his head to get better access. He lets his hand slide from Niall’s cheek, over his chest and under his arm so he can press his fingers into his shoulder blade. Using both hands, he pulls Niall even closer. Niall presses himself against Harry’s chest and with the way Harry’s sitting, he can’t support the pressure and falls backwards on the sofa.

Niall’s on top of him between his legs and he brings one hand to Harry’s head so he can curl his fingers in his hair. It sends a chill through Harry’s spine and he lets one of his hands glide down Niall’s back to stop at his bum. He squeezes lightly before moving further down to place it over the back of his thigh, just below his arse. His other hand moves down to the hem of Niall’s shirt before sliding up under it. Harry flattens his hand on Niall’s warm back and presses his fingertips into the skin. Niall moves his hips, grinds down onto Harry and Harry groans into the kiss. He grinds back on instinct, revelling in the friction it creates.

Niall breaks the kiss and gasps for air. He lets his head fall down onto Harry’s shoulder and Harry takes the opportunity to press kisses at the delicate skin on his neck. He breathes heavily and rubs his hand in small circles on Niall’s back. He can feel little bumps, probably birthmarks, on his skin. He wants to map them out with his tongue.

They stay like that until their breathing has somewhat even out, and Harry thinks that he has some control over the slightly uncomfortable situation in his jeans. Niall lifts his head to look at Harry and he looks so fucking delectable. His cheeks are rosy and his lips swollen. He’s got a satisfied look in his eyes and Harry can’t even imagine what he must look like post-orgasm.

Niall leans in to press his lips against Harry’s. There’s no rush this time, just slow, gentle touching. Harry brings his hand from Niall’s thigh to his back, slips it in under his clothes and wraps both his arms around his slim waist, hugging him tight. Niall cups Harry’s cheek, smooths his thumb over the short stubble.

”Feels odd, this” he murmurs against Harry’s lips. ”Stubble.” He leans back and focuses his gaze on his movements. Then at Harry’s eyes.

”But I quite like it.”

Harry smiles and tightens his grip around Niall’s middle. His heart is swelling.

”You’re a fucking fantastic kisser” Niall adds and Harry barks out a loud laugh.

”Thanks” he smirks. ”You’re not too bad yourself.”

Niall chuckles and leans in to give Harry a short kiss.

”I should probably head back home, see to Saturn n’ all that.”

Harry tries not to be too disappointed. He knew nothing was going to happen and this is far more than he hoped for. He nods and releases his hold on him. Niall gives him a small smile and uses the armrest behind Harry’s head as leverage as he gets up. Harry’s body is instantly cold. But he stands up and follows Niall to the hallway. He leans against the wall and glances at his wristwatch - it’s not late at all, not even 9.30. But maybe it’s for the best that they break things up now, he thinks.

”D’you want me to walk you to the tube?”

”Nah, I’m a big boy, I think I can manage.”

Niall puts on his shoes and slips on his jacket and then he shuffles his feet as he looks at Harry, almost expectantly. Harry reaches out for him, wraps his hands in his jacket and tugs him towards himself. He splays one hand on the nape of Niall’s neck and tilts his head before bringing him in for a kiss.

Niall’s hands finds their way to Harry’s hips and his skin is in flames. He can’t help but feel how perfectly they fit together, how well their bodies blend. Niall’s teeth graze against his Harry’s bottom lip before he draws back and kisses the corner of his mouth. Harry cups both his hands around Niall’s face and kisses him one more time, can’t get enough. Niall smiles, the corner of his eyes crinkling and he’s never been this beautiful.

”I’ll see you on Monday, yeah?”

Harry nods and mumbles out a ”yeah” before leaning back in and pulling on Niall’s bottom lip one last time. Niall squeezes at his hips before releasing himself from Harry’s grip and then he heads for the door, flashing a smile over his shoulder before he’s gone.

Harry is most possibly going to faint. _He kissed Niall. Niall kissed him back. They had a fucking_ snogging session _on Harry’s sofa._

This is the best day of Harry’s life.

\---

”There he is! Casanova!” Louis yells when he comes to Harry with his coffee on Monday morning. Harry’s told him every single detail, of course.

”Look at that cute little blush on your face, no wonder you won Niall over” Louis exclaims and pinches Harry’s cheeks.

”Shut up, Lou.” Harry tries to glare at him but it’s hard, because he’s so fucking happy. He was giddy all day yesterday and could hardly go to sleep after Niall had went home. He’d done the dishes (he resisted to lick at Niall’s fork because that would just have been scary) and danced around the flat and sung at the top of his lungs and wanked three times but he still couldn’t calm down.

”Have you talked to him since he left?”

”We texted a bit last night, but only briefly” Harry shrugs his shoulders. He’s not too worried about it.

”But you’re coming to lunch with us lads, right? It’s really weird when you’re not there.”

”Can’t get enough of me, can you?” Harry winks and Louis rolls his eyes.

”Just come to lunch, yeah?”

Harry nods, and Louis pats him on the head before disappearing. Harry takes a sip of his coffee and tries to decide what he should do. He’s got a lot of work on his shoulders, because of the more than usual inactive weeks behind them, when he’s done nothing but think about Niall. It’s not that he works hard anyway, either. Harry’s not sure why he hasn’t been fired yet.

Eventually, he decides on reading a report. It’s all very boring. He accidentally ends up finding a game site where you can play Tetris and that’s how he spends the rest of his morning.

At 11.58, he rises from his chair and grabs his coat to go get Louis. When he arrives at his cubicle, he finds that also Louis is playing Tetris. (Harry had emailed him the link, it’s his duty as best friend.) It takes him a bit of gentle persuasion to get Louis to abandon his game, because Louis insists that he will get one of those long ones, soon. (He doesn’t.)

They fetch Zayn from where they find him running around with a stack of papers, looking overly stressed as usual. Harry considers sending him the link too, but he’s not sure if Zayn would actually use it.

Niall and Liam are already waiting for them by the entrance and Harry is suddenly very nervous. How will he and Niall act? The others ought to know already, right? They must have figured out why Harry and Niall have been having lunch on their own, for god’s sake.

Harry’s heart beat rapidly against his ribs as they get closer. Niall looks absolutely breath taking.

”Hiya, lads” says Louis and throws an arm around Liam’s shoulders before giving Niall a fist bump. ”Got any suggestions for lunch?”

Niall doesn’t answer him. Instead, he looks at Harry. His eyes are glittering.

”Hi” he says and smiles.

”Hi.” Harry feels all giddy inside, and it must show, because Niall’s smile widens.

”I’m feeling for some fish n’ chips, to be honest” says Zayn.

”How very stereotypical” says Louis. ”I vote yes.”

They move outside, Zayn leading the way to some fish n’ chips place. Somehow, but maybe not so accidental, Harry and Niall end up trailing a few steps behind the other three. The air’s a bit chilly and Harry looks to Niall, who’s cheeks have turned a very appealing pink colour.

He reaches out to take his hand firmly in his own.

Niall looks over at him and smiles brightly and it’s like the sun’s shining through his eyes. He changes the hold on Harry’s hand, slots his finger between Harry’s and strokes the back of his hand with his thumb.

”Oi! Lovebirds! No trailing behind, it’s sickening!”

The sounds of Louis’ voice snaps Harry out of whatever trance he must’ve been in, and he realises that they’re a long way from the others now. All three of them have turned around; Louis looking gleeful (despite his words) while both Zayn and Liam have contented smile on their faces. It makes Harry’s stomach all fluttery.

”You’re just jealous!” he yells back with a hand to his mouth. Louis laughs and they all turn around again. Harry tugs at Niall’s hand and they speed up their steps.

Later that afternoon, Harry finds himself on the fifth floor. He just couldn’t stop himself from seeing Niall. He met Louis on his way to the lift and Louis was absolutely ecstatic over his newfound confidence. Harry’s not sure if it’s confidence or if his attraction to Niall is only getting stronger.

Nonetheless, he knocks at Niall’s partition to announce his arrival. Niall spins around at the sound at lights up.

”Harry! What’re you doing here?”

Thinking about it now, Harry should probably have come up with a good excuse before coming here. But he’s not very good with making up lies on spot.

”I just wanted to say hi” he says and feels his cheeks heat up.

Niall’s absolutely beaming in his chair.

”Well, don’t just stand there, then. Come over and say hi” he winks and oh god he just winked. Harry might die.

His limbs have never felt this heavy and clumsy as he takes the few steps over to where Niall’s sitting. He stops when he stands before Niall, and Niall looks up at him with big, blue eyes. Harry thinks _what the hell_ and in what he hopes is a swift motion, straddles Niall’s lap. It’s a bit tricky with his long legs and he has to take a moment to squeeze his knees in under the armrests. It has Niall laughing and if Harry wasn’t so smitten by the sound, he would feel very, very embarrassed.

Instead, he takes Niall’s face in his hands and swallows Niall’s laugh. Niall hums appreciatively into the kiss and positions his hands on Harry’s waist, holding him in place. They kiss for a moment before Harry breaks the contact, leaning back in once to peck him on the lips before breathing out a ”hi”.

Niall chuckles.

”Hi.”

Harry lets go of his face to place his hands on Niall’s shoulder, but he makes no movement to get up and Niall doesn’t loosen his grip on his hips.

”Thanks for the other night” Niall smiles. ”It was great.”

”The pleasure’s all mine.”

”Well, I’d like to repay you the favour. Maybe tomorrow night? We could go over to my flat after work.”

Harry nods and hums. He drags his fingers along Niall’s prominent collarbones under his white shirt. He wants to taste his skin.

Niall tilts his head forward and catches Harry’s mouth with his own. Harry resists a smile forming on his lips, because how fucking fantastic isn’t this? Niall wants to kiss him. Niall’s kissing him at work. Harry gets to kiss Niall at work.

They end the kiss and Harry locks gaze with Niall and he looks absolutely ravishing.

”I think you’re very, very beautiful” he says, and it’s not until after the words’ve left his mouth that he realises what he said.

Niall cheeks turn bright red and he lets out a breathy chuckle.

”Thanks.”

Harry smiles at him and leans in to kiss at the corner of his mouth. It’s probably far too early to be all smoochy and he might just scare Niall away, but he can’t help it. He wants to shower Niall in compliments, wants to tell him just how much his mere presence affects Harry.

”As much as I enjoy this” Niall says and looks between them, ”I can’t feel my legs anymore.”

He moves his hands to Harry’s thighs and taps his fingers.

”Oh, sorry” Harry rushes out and immediately starts to untangle his legs. It proves to be more difficult than expected and he loses his balance and falls backwards onto the floor. He’s fairly sure he sees his life flash before his eyes. Thankfully the floor’s carpeted, but it’s still hard and he hits his head.

”Ouch” he breathes out and Niall starts to laugh in his chair. Harry lifts his head from the floor to glare at him.

”You should’ve seen yourself” Niall laughs but gets up from the chair to offer Harry his hand. Harry laboriously rises up from the floor and Niall gathers him in his arms.

”You okay, though?”

Harry rubs the sore back of his head.

”Yeah” he mumbles. Niall brings one of his hands to the place where Harry just rubbed and feels it with his fingers. He hums.

”Seems fine to me, but on the other hand, I’m not doctor. The fall might’ve made you even more stupid than before” he grins. Harry tries to look offended, but this playful side is a bit new to him and he absolutely adores it.

”Ha ha, very funny” he settles with. ”Maybe you should kiss it better.”

”Do you think it’ll work if I kiss your lips?”

”Maybe, we could always try.”

Niall chuckles again and tilts his head so he reach Harry’s lips.

”It’s so weird” he says. ”You’re taller than me, I’m not used to that.”

And Harry doesn’t really know how to respond to that. He’s kissed guys both taller and shorter than himself.

Niall kisses him again. Harry decides not to think too hard about it.

\---

Harry’s not even that nervous when Tuesday afternoon comes, and it’s almost time to go home. Yes, he’s going home with Niall and yes, he’s going to see his home and yes, he’s going to meet his cat. But he’s not as nervous as he probably should be.

It could be because Niall had visited him on the third floor earlier that morning for some kissing and to hear this new joke that Harry’d heard. Apparently, he enjoyed the kissing but not the joke. Said it was the worst he’d ever heard. (Harry told the joke to Liam instead, Liam always laugh politely when he tells jokes.)

Niall comes to Harry’s cubicle a few minutes before they’re allowed to go home, already dressed with his bag slung over his shoulder. Harry gives him a smile before telling him that he’s almost done. Niall waits patiently and fiddles with his phone. And when Harry’s put on his coat and grabbed his briefcase, he grabs his hand. On their way to the lift, they meet Louis who’s carrying a bunch of papers while eating an apple. He looks down at their hands and wiggles his eyebrows.

”Alright, lads” he says, tries to smirk but he’s got mushy apple in his mouth so it fails a bit. Harry rolls his eyes at him.

”Have fun” he smiles brightly and drags Niall along to the lift. Louis shouts profanities after them. He’s been lagging behind on work even more than Harry lately (and Harry showing him the Tetris game definitely didn’t help, he’s regretting that a bit) so Louis has to work over a few days this week.

It’s sunny outside, for once, so Niall suggests they walk to his flat. It’s not that far, apparently. They never let go of their hands, once, even though it’s getting a bit sweaty. Harry has to admit that he’s impressed by how brave Niall is, to let himself be shown out with Harry like this, when he’s always dated girls before. Even though Harry’s never been ashamed of himself, it still took a while for him to be able to hold his first boyfriend’s hand in public. But Niall has a tight grip on Harry’s hand and turns his head towards him to smile once in a while, when he’s not talking about some random thing, like he always does.

Eventually they arrive at a little more quiet street (it was a bit more far away than Harry imagined) and Niall leads them to door number 9. He punches in the code (”It’s 4287, remember that.”) (Harry squeals inside) and opens the door for Harry to enter first. They take the stairs, because apparently Niall lives on the first floor. Harry doesn’t complain, because Niall takes the lead so Harry’s got a good view of his arse. It’s a very lovely behind.

Niall unlocks the door but before he opens it, Harry says:

”So this is the big test, huh?” He’s suddenly very, very nervous.

Niall turns around and looks questioning at him.

”You said that you couldn’t be with someone who Saturn didn’t like, right? This is the moment of truth.”

Niall drops his hand from the door handle. Harry chews on the inside of his mouth. Niall closes the small gap between them and kisses Harry and it’s probably the most tenderly he’s kissed him so far.

”Don’t worry” he mumbles against Harry’s lips and kisses him one more time before smiling and turning to open the door. He steps inside and gestures for Harry to come in as well before he closes the door behind them.

It’s always a bit weird to come home to someone for the first time, before you’ve gotten used to how it smells, because all homes smell a bit weird. But not Niall’s. Niall’s flat smells just like Niall and Harry just wants to breathe in the air forever.

There’s the faint sound of what Harry assumes is paws, coming through the flat and suddenly a small cat comes around the corner. Harry recognises her from the photo on Niall’s desk. She’s astonishingly cute.

”Hey darling, how’s your day been?” Niall coos and she runs the last few steps between them to curl herself around his legs. He bends down to pat her on the head and Harry can make out a low purring coming from her. He takes a deep breath because this is fucking it and kneels down. He makes a little smacking sound with his mouth and Saturn turns her attention towards him.

”Hi, Saturn” he tries and wiggles his fingers for her. She sniffs a little and takes a few hesitant steps towards him before leaning her head in the last bit and sniffing his fingers. She sniffs for an awfully long time, Harry thinks, too long for his nerves. But then she bumps her head against his wrist and starts to purr again.

Harry breathes out, a breath he didn’t even know he was holding in and Niall chuckles from above him. Harry looks up at him and he can’t help but smile widely.

”Of course she’d like you” Niall says. ”Why wouldn’t she?”

Harry smiles even wider and scratches Saturn behind the ears. She strokes her body against his knee and Harry chuckles.

Niall takes off his shoes and jacket and disappears off to the right. Harry can hear him moving about and opening cupboards and then he calls out:

”Saturn, fancy something to eat?”

And Saturn immediately runs off to the sound of his voice. Harry can hear him talk to her in a low voice and it sounds to welcoming and genuine that Harry’s heart feels like it’s going to burst. He takes off his shoes and hangs his coat on a hook and goes after them.

Niall’s standing in his kitchen, it’s smaller than Harry’s but very cozy. He’s leaning against the counter with Saturn in his arms. The sight makes Harry’s heart swell and he feels like tearing up. He walks up to them and strokes Saturn’s light grey fur.

”She’s beautiful.”

”I know” Niall says and smiles at him before pressing a kiss to her head and letting her down on the floor.

”Come, I’ll show you around” he says and touches Harry’s bicep lightly before motioning for him to follow.

First, there’s the bathroom. It’s a bit bigger than Harry’s and it makes him a little jealous. Then there Niall’s bedroom. Furnishing wise, it’s a lot like Harry’s, except Niall’s got a telly in there on top of a drawer. And there’s a very soft looking rug on the floor. Harry wonders what it’d be like to have sex on it.

Niall’s lounge has a big comfy looking sofa with a white coffee table, there’s a fairly big telly on the wall and on the floor under it stands two round vases with greens plants in them. A guitar is leaning against the wall in the corner. There’s a bookcase with a few books, some video games and other nicknacks. Among them is a photo frame and Harry inches closer to see who’s in it.

It’s a small boy who looks a bit like Niall, but the eyes don’t look right.

”Who’s this?”

”Oh, that’s Theo, my nephew. Cutest kid in the world. Don’t see him a lot, my brother and his family lives back home in Ireland.”

Harry nods. ”He looks a bit like you.”

”You think?” Niall lights up and comes closer to have a better look. ”Well, you can clearly see he’s a Horan, if that’s what you mean.”

This close, standing right next to Harry, Harry can feel the heat from Niall’s body. Can see the small hairs on his neck, all the little freckles on his cheek. He’s so delicate, yet so much man and it doesn’t make sense, it shouldn’t work but it does and suddenly it’s a bit hard for Harry to breathe.

He wraps one of his arms around Niall’s middle and buries his face in his hair, breathing in the faint smell of his shampoo. Niall jumps a little at the sudden contact, but shifts in Harry’s grip so he can put an arm around his neck. Harry puts his head on Niall’s shoulder instead and wraps his other arm around his back and Niall hugs him back. He drags a hand through Harry’s hair and Harry instinctually tightens his grip around Niall’s slim waist. Niall chuckles low in his ear.

”You’re quite the cuddler, aren’t you?”

Harry hums in response and presses a kiss to Niall’s neck.

”I’m gonna go change, want to borrow some clothes? Get out of this” Niall asks and pulls a little on Harry’s suit jacket.

That’d be great, actually. Harry tells Niall this and Niall eases out of Harry’s embrace and leads him back to his bedroom. Harry sits down on the foot of the bed and watches as Niall starts to pull out clothes from the wardrobe. He hands Harry a pair of sweatpants and gives him the option between a jumper and tee shirt (Harry chooses the jumper, it probably smells a lot like Niall). Then he shrugs out of his suit jacket, hangs it on a hanger and starts unbuttoning his white shirt.

Harry can’t do anything but stare. There’s a dust of light brown hair on Niall’s chest and Harry can’t look away.

Niall looks at him, a little uncertain and stills his hands.

”You don’t mind, do you?”

Harry doesn’t even realise he’s risen from the bed and closed the gap between them before he’s got Niall pinned against the door of the wardrobe. He presses his body close to Niall’s and Niall finds his lips. He tangles his fingers in Harry’s hair and fucking _pulls_ and if Harry’s body wasn’t on fire before, it definitely is now.

Then Niall’s pushing him backwards, still kissing him, until the back of Harry’s knees hit the mattress on Niall’s bed. He falls backward, taking Niall with him. Niall’s got one knee on the bed between Harry’s legs and hovers over him with one hand on the duvet and the other still in Harry’s hair. But the distance is too big, Harry must feel Niall’s whole body. In a swift motion, he rolls them over so he’s lying half on top of Niall. He grinds his hips down on Niall’s and Niall moans into his mouth. It sends a shiver through Harry’s entire body and he breaks the kiss to nuzzle his face in Niall’s chest hair and swirls his hips again.

Niall’s breathing heavily, one arm splayed out on the bed and the other hand tangled in Harry’s hair. Harry lifts his head and kisses Niall hard as he starts unbuttoning his shirt. And then it freezes in his head and he stills his hands, his heart still beating rapidly in his chest.

”Is this okay?” he breathes out and tightens his grip on Niall’s shirt. Niall nods jerkily.

”Yes, yes” he pants and Harry kisses him again. He fumbles with the buttons, distracted by Niall’s tongue in his mouth. Eventually he undoes the last button and leans back as he pushes the fabric to the sides. Niall’s panting, his chest rising and sinking fast. He’s got the cutest belly button Harry’s ever seen and there’s a fine trail of small hairs leading in under the hem of his trousers.

”Oh god” Harry whispers and it comes out almost as a whine.

He puts a hand flat on Niall’s tummy and brings his mouth to his flushed chest. His fingers kneed in the slightly pudgy flesh on Niall’s belly and he licks over one of Niall’s nipples before blowing cold air on the skin.

”Jesus christ” Niall moans and it’s too much, it’s too much. Harry silences his moan with his mouth and brings Niall into a sitting position.

”Off, this needs to be off” he fumbles with his words and pulls at Niall’s shirt and Niall quickly shrugs it off his arms.

Niall’s sitting there on his bed, shirtless and panting, with his hair all tousled, blown pupils. And it’s all for Harry. Harry is the only one there to admire it.

He presses his lips to the skin on Niall’s collarbone and sucks hard, causing another moan to form on Niall’s lips. Harry’s hands find their way to the button on Niall’s trousers and he quickly unbuttons it and pulls down the zipper.

”Can I blow you?” he manages to breathe out in Niall’s ear and Niall nods in response. Harry smiles against the skin on his neck before he scrambles up from the bed and kneels down between Niall’s legs. Niall lifts his torso up on his arms and looks down at Harry who holds his gaze for a moment before diverting it to his unbuttoned trousers. He grabs the hem of the clothing and Niall lifts his hips. Harry pulls the trousers down, all the way to his ankles and then off completely.

He sits down on his legs and takes a moment to appreciate Niall, in only boxers and socks. His flushed skin, the pale, skinny legs, even skinnier than Harry imagined, his white boxer shorts straining. He’s so beautiful.

Harry lifts his hands to place on Niall’s bony knees, rubs them down once before up again, and continuing up until he reaches Niall’s boxers. He can see goosebumps forming on his skin and leans in to kiss the inside of his thigh. Niall draws in a shaky breath and that’s all Harry needs. He grabs Niall’s boxers and pulls them down.

Harry stands up on his knees, leaning towards Niall and places his hands on his jaws. He carefully takes Niall’s bottom lip between his own, sucks lightly on it and Niall opens his mouth for him. As they kiss, Harry lets one of his hands slide from Niall’s jaw; past his collarbones, his chest and tummy. He takes Niall in his hand and Niall gasps into his mouth.

Harry pulls the foreskin down and drags his thumb over the head, spreading the pre cum to slick up his fingers before he starts to pump his hand up and down. Niall moans and his lips go limp against Harry’s. Harry shifts his head to the side and places a sloppy kiss to his cheek before pulling back. He unbuttons the first two buttons on his shirt with his free hand, because it’s seriously getting hot in here and why is he wearing so much clothes?

But there’s no time to think about that right now. He blinks up at Niall once before turning his attention downwards, drawing in a breath before he takes in the head on Niall’s cock. He swirls his tongue around it, all while running his thumb along the length.

Harry’s no expert at sucking cock, can’t say he’s got plenty of experience. He can’t deep throat, like that guy at uni who was fucking amazing, but he can take down enough. He lowers his head and opens his jaws wider as he takes in more of Niall and as he glances up at him, Niall falls back on the bed with a shallow breath.

Harry hums quietly, swirling his tongue around what he can reach while pumping his hand at the base. Niall’s thighs are tensing and Harry rubs his other hand into the flesh. He draws his head back a little, sucking hard, before going back in.

Niall’s muttering gibberish on the bed, mixed with a couple of swear words and it makes Harry’s already hard dick twitch in his trousers. He palms himself through the fabric, causing him to moan again and then Niall’s moving on the bed, sitting up. He nestles a hand in Harry’s hair, pushing his fringe back from his eyes.

Harry looks up at him, causing Niall to swear again. It makes Harry quicken his pace and Niall’s thighs start tensing up again, his hips bucking upwards and Harry has to place his palm flat on his tummy to keep him still. Niall starts saying something, but it comes out as a mere stutter and Harry doesn’t really understand, but then Niall comes down his throat.

Harry swallows, keeping his eyes trained on Niall. Niall is falling apart over him and it’s possibly the most stunning thing Harry’s ever witnessed. Niall falls back on the bed again and Harry licks at him a few times to make sure he’s clean before scrambling up from the floor, his knees a bit sore. With his knees on either side of Niall, he places his arms on both sides of his head. Niall looks absolutely breathtaking. His flushed face and cheeks, his unruly hair and the relaxed, satisfied smile on his lips. Harry ducks down to kiss along his exposed neck.

Niall turns his head to capture his lips in a kiss.

”Sorry you didn’t get a warning” he mumbles into the kiss and Harry shakes his head.

”Don’t worry about it.”

Niall fingers at Harry’s collar.

”Why are you still wearing clothes?”

Harry sits back on Niall’s thighs and quickly unbuttons his shirt halfway down before he pulls it over his head. He starts working on his belt buckle when Niall pulls him down for a kiss.

”God, your tattoos.”

Harry snickers into his mouth before sitting up straight again. He unbuckles his belt and stands up to work his trousers down his legs. Niall’s sitting up, silently watching him. Harry kicks his trousers to the side and removes his socks. Niall looks down at his movements and frowns.

”Are you wearing two pairs?”

”Uh, yeah.”

”Why?”

”Don’t know, I’ve always done it.” Harry shrugs.

Niall lets out a chuckle. The sound is music to Harry’s ears and he palms himself through his boxers and groans. Niall tenses on the bed. Harry pushes away the hair that’s fallen in his eyes.

”Are you okay?”

Niall swallows.

”Yeah, it’s just-” he lets out a shaky laugh ”a bit weird.”

”You don’t have to do anything you don’t want.”

Niall shakes his head.

”Come lay next to me.”

He shuffles up on the bed, until he lays down on his back with his head on one of the pillow. He pats on the bed next to him.

Harry climbs in next to him, his cock now achingly hard. The pillow is really comfy and he resists the urge to snuggle into it. It smells like Niall.

He turns his head and Niall meets his eye. Niall shifts to his side, props himself up on his elbow and leans down to kiss Harry. He lets his other hand trace across Harry’s chest; over the swallows and past the butterfly. His touch makes Harry’s skin tingle and he can hardly breathe.

Niall’s hand stops for a second when it reaches the hem of Harry’s pants, but then it slips in under and Harry gasps at the feeling. Niall tugs the fabric down and wraps his fingers around him. And then he starts pumping and it’s not like Niall’s giving him the best hand job Harry’s ever had, but it’s _Niall_. It’s _Niall’s_ hand and Harry can’t fathom how stunning that is.

Niall circles his thumb over the head, dragging it through the slit. Harry chokes out a moan and Niall presses kisses along his jawline. He speeds up his pace, his wrist curling wonderfully and Harry feels that familiar pressure starting to build up in his belly. Niall places a kiss at his adam’s apple. Harry feels hit hot breath on his neck, on his collarbones. He feels Niall’s hair tickle the underside of his chin, Niall’s body next to his, and he comes.

It’s almost embarrassing how short time he lasted, but he can’t be bothered to care. Niall’s pressing short kisses over his chest, stroking his hair slowly. If it wasn’t wonderful already, it certainly is now.

Harry opens his eyes, didn’t even realise he’d shut them, and finds that Niall’s now looking at him. His eyes are magnificently blue.

”Thanks” Harry mumbles, because it’s all he can muster in the state he’s in. Niall chuckles and presses a light kiss to his lips.

”I’ve got some tissues, hold on” he says, and for a moment his body is gone as he reaches over to the nightstand. He comes back into Harry’s view with a box of tissues. Harry gratefully takes one and swipes up the mess he’s made on his belly. Niall takes the tissue and throws it on the floor before he lays down next to Harry again. Harry tucks himself back into his pants and turns on his side. He drapes one arm over Niall’s middle and rests his head on his chest, tangles one leg with Niall’s. Niall curls an arm around Harry’s upper body and if Harry’s not mistaken, that’s a kiss on the top of his head.

Harry can’t believe what just happened. He’s _naked_ in Niall’s bed. With _Niall_ , who’s also naked.

It’s fucking Christmas.

Harry squeezes Niall a little, just because he can and because it’s fucking lovely.

Then Niall’s stomach grumbles.

”Well,” Harry says. ”You’re one of those people, I guess?”

Niall laughs, his ribcage vibrating under Harry’s head..

”Not always, if you’d believe it. But it’s been a while since I ate.”

”Better make something about it, then. It’d be a shame if you starved.”

Niall pinches Harry in the side, not hard, but enough to make him squirm.

”Can’t be arsed to make dinner” Niall sighs and lifts his head, seemingly searching the room. He eases himself out of Harry’s grip and Harry resists the urge to let out a whine. Niall climbs out of bed, and maybe it’s not all too bad because Harry gets a pretty good view of his arse. It’s a very pretty arse. And it’s even prettier when Niall bends down to pick up his discarded trousers. He climbs back in to bed on his stomach and props himself up on his elbows as he scrolls.

”Will pepperoni pizza be okay?”

Harry nods and Niall puts the phone to his ear. He orders the pizza and then shuffles closer to Harry to bury his face in his neck. Harry wraps an arm around him, tracing patterns on his back. Their breathing has evened out completely and the only sound is their calm breaths.

They stay like that until the doorbell rings. Niall groans into Harry’s neck but stands up and pulls on the sweatpants he was supposed to wear before Harry pounded on him. He disappears from the bedroom and a moment later, Harry hears the faint sound of voices coming from the other end of the flat.

Niall returns a minute later, with a pizza box in one hand and a roll of paper towels in the other. He orders Harry to get under the duvet and hands Harry the pizza before he’s off again. He’s back short after with a jug of water and two glasses that he places on the nightstand before joining Harry in the bed. He puts on the telly and shuffles close to Harry, so that their bodies are pressed to each other. Harry kisses him on his bare shoulder. There’s a rerun of a Family Guy episode and they watch it, sitting close while sharing the pizza.

Harry thinks that life can’t possibly be better than this.

\---

He wakes up the next morning to an alarm that is not Marimba. The bed feels different and his arm is draped over a body that’s facing from him. Also, there’s a lump by his feet and he realises that it’s a cat. He has a short moment of panic before he remembers where he is, and the other body starts to stir awake.

Niall turns off the alarm and then shifts to his other side, so he’s looking at Harry.

”Morning” he murmurs and Harry can’t actually believe that this is happening to him. Him! Het gets to wake up next to Niall Horan! There must be a glitch in the universe somewhere, that’s for sure.

”Morning” he says back, his voice raspy from his sleep. Niall smiles lazily at him and leans in to brush his lips against Harry’s before turning on his back and stretching out, groaning. Harry tries not to think about how utterly sexy it is.

”D’you wanna have a shower?” Niall asks and wow, that’d be nice. Harry tells him so and Niall gestures for him to get up.

”C’mon then, I’ll show you.”

After his shower, he walks back to Niall’s bedroom with the towel Niall put out for him wrapped around his hips. Niall’s sitting on the bed, tapping away on his phone. He looks up when Harry enters and smiles.

”I got some clothes out for you” he says and stands up. His hand grazes Harry’s wrist as he walks by and before he disappears into the bathroom, he calls: ”There’s tea in the kitchen!”

Harry puts on the clean boxers, but the trousers are a little too tight and the shirt too short in the sleeves, so Harry puts on his own clothes he wore yesterday. It doesn’t feel right, but it’s his only choice.

He pours himself a cup of tea and sits down at the table. Saturn walks in, yawns and strokes her petite body against Harry’s leg. Harry lifts her up into his lap and she starts to purr as he drags his fingers through her fur. He mumbles sweet nothings at her and she sits down, buffing her head against his abdomen.

Niall enters in his work attire, his hair still damp on his head. Harry lifts Saturn from his lap to stand up, but she crawls up on his shoulders and positions herself behind his neck. Okay. Harry walks over to the kettle, his head a little bent, and pours Niall a cup.

Harry eats cornflakes and Niall eats toast and then it’s time to leave for work. They take the tube this morning, and there are no seats left for them to sit. So they stand close to each other and Niall talks about when he got Saturn, how shy she used to be. Harry listens to every word, sucking in every part of Niall’s life he’s allowed into.

Louis comes to work at 8.36. Harry hears him stopping along the way to his cubicle to say hello to everyone, but eventually he reaches Harry. Harry spins around to greet him and Louis takes one look at him and frowns.

”Why’re you wearing yesterday’s clothes?”

Harry looks down at his body.

”How did you even _notice_ that?”

”Mate, it’s all wrinkly, your shirts are always ironed.”

Then there’s something that clicks in Louis’ head.

”Oh no, oh no you did _not_.”

Harry clears his throat. Of course Louis would realise.

”I did, actually.”

Louis looks equally impressed as proud. He grabs Harry’s head and peppers him with kisses.

”Oh my little baby, seducing the straight boy into loving him.”

Harry rolls his eyes.

”So you spent the night, huh?” Louis asks and winks.

Harry nods and can’t help but smile.

”Was he any good? In fact, no, don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.”

Louis shivers and takes a sip of Harry’s coffee. Harry snatches it from his hand.

”Just, as long as you’re happy, Harry. Are you happy?”

Harry thinks that Louis really is the best friend in the world.

”I’m very happy, Lou.”

\---

Harry spends his Wednesday afternoon blowing Niall in the toilets. And then later again in the copy room on Niall’s floor.

After Niall’s orgasm, when he’s sitting on top of the copy machine with his trousers hanging at his dangling feet, looking like he’s come straight out of some cheap rom-com, he tells Harry, slightly out of breath:

”I really like you, Harry.”

Harry’s sitting on the floor below him, resting his head on Niall’s shin. His heart speeds up and it’s almost pathetic.

”Yeah?”

”It scares the shit out of me, because you’re the first. Hell, I still don’t fancy blokes.” Niall sounds almost angry. ”You’re the only one.”

Harry shifts his head so he can kiss Niall’s calf.

”And I’ve no idea what I’m doing, I’m not used to this.”

Harry twists so he can look up at Niall, and tugs at his leg to make him look down.

”I promise I won’t pressure you.”

”Yeah, I know, but like - I don’t want to pressure you, either. Do you want this?”

That’s probably the dumbest question Harry’s ever heard.

”I’ve wanted this since the moment I laid eyes on you.”

”Really?”

Harry nods.

”You’re quite the catch, despite your chicken legs.”

Niall laughs loudly and kicks at Harry.

”You’re ridiculous.”

Harry smiles up at him and cups Niall’s calf. He strokes his thumb over the hairs.

”Can I be your ridiculous boyfriend?”

Niall smiles widely. Harry thinks that he looks like the sun. The light from the ceiling makes his bleached hair glow, like a gloria.

”I don’t know, can you?”

Harry sighs and pinches his leg.

” _May_ I?”

Niall chuckles and nods.

”You may. You may also get up from that dirty floor and kiss me.”

Harry obeys.

**Author's Note:**

> This was my first time writing sex and it was a lot more awkward than I imagined. I hope it wasn't too bad.


End file.
